ARCATA, Calif. – The No. 14/17 Cal State San Marcos men’s basketball team (19-4) will be playing for its first CCAA Tournament Championship as it defeated No. 11/10 Chico State (19-4) by a score of 80-66 in the semifinals of the CCAA Tournament at Lumberjack Arena on Friday night.
TOP PERFORMERS
Alex Gil-Fernandez – 18 points | 4 rebounds | 3 assists | 3 steals
Blake Seits – 18 points | 4-of-5 3FG | 4-of-4 FT
Greg Milton III – 17 points | 6-of-9 FG | 3 rebounds | 3 assists
Jayce McCain – 10 points | 7 assists | 3 rebounds | 2 steals
Joel Mensah – 7 points | 6 rebounds | 1 blocked shot
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Cougars and Wildcats stayed withing four points of each other for the entire first half, trading the lead eight times in the first 20 minutes while tying nine times.
The Wildcats took their final lead of the game with 1:43 remaining in the first half on a pair of Colby Orr free throws that made it 30-28.
A Sean Dun layup and one free throw by Gil-Fernandez gave CSUSM a 31-30 lead at the break. The Cougars shot 44.4% (12-of-27) from the field while Chico came in at 52.4% (11-of-21).
Chico led for just over nine minutes in the first half while CSUSM clocked in at 6:15.
Milton tied the game high for points in the first half with 11.
CSUSM began the second half on an 15-4 run. Chico was forced to take a timeout after a Sean Dunn layup to make it 46-34 with 15:30 to go.
A 3-pointer by Seits gave the Cougars a 15-point lead at 51-36 with 13:43 remaining.
A Donovan Watkins layup with 8:43 remaining put CSUSM up 61-45 and gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game.
A 3-pointer by Chico’s Malik Duffy with 8:02 to play put the Wildcats’ deficit back down to single digits at 61-53.
The Cougars’ lead returned to double digits for the remainder of the game after Milton nailed a 3-pointers to make with 65-55 with 5:30 to go.
CSUSM closed out the game with 80-66 lead with 37 seconds remaining after a pair of free throws by Seits.
FAST BREAKS
The Cougars will be making their first-ever appearance in the championship game of the CCAA Tournament.
CSUSM is now 2-1 all-time in CCAA postseason games.
The Cougars ended the night shooting 50.9% (27-of-53) from the field – their fourth consecutive game shooting 50% or better.
CSUSM has also tallied 15 or more assists in each of its past four games.
The Cougars committed their second-fewest turnovers of the season with five. They set a single-game record with only two against Point Loma earlier this season.
This was CSUSM’s third win against a ranked opponent this season with Chico accounting for two of them.
The Cougars had a 10-1 advantage in steals. CSUSM has posted more steals than its opponents in all but one game this season.
CSUSM took a season-high 28 attempts from the charity stripe.
UP NEXT
Third-seeded CSUSM will play in its first-ever CCAA Championship game against first-seeded Cal State San Bernardino on Saturday at 8 p.m. in Arcata. The No. 6/5 Coyotes defeated Cal State Dominguez Hills by a score of 94-69 in the other semifinal matchup.
