CARSON – Age has rendered the piece of paper the color of a smoker’s teeth. Tiny rips and crevices ring the edges. It’s a history of the 1994-95 Chico State men’s basketball campaign and the line second from the bottom reads: Chico State 86, UC Davis 79 – March 3, 1995. For 14 years, 11 months and 30 days that line signified the last postseason victory for the Chico State men’s basketball team. But today is a new day.
The Wildcats went into the Torodome, dubbed the Terrordome for the Wildcats by some, and ripped the hearts out of the Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros with a 63-60 win in the opening round of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship Tournament Tuesday night. Freshman Damario Sims scored a career-high 21 points, including two crucial free throws with 14 seconds left, another freshman, Jason Conrad, played a critical role down the stretch, and senior Jon Baird made sure he had at least one more game to play by scoring all 13 of his points in the game’s final 7:24.
Chico State will now take on CCAA Champion and No. 1 seed Cal Poly Pomona in the tournament semifinals Friday at 5:30 at Humboldt State’s Lumberjack Arena in Arcata. The winner will advance to Saturday’s title game with an automatic berth in the NCAA Championship Tournament on the line.
Jon Baird scored all 13 of his points in the final 7:24.
Cal State Dominguez Hills dominated the two regular-season meetings with Chico State, outrebounding the Wildcats by double-digits and winning by double-digits both times. In a 55-40 loss to the Toros on Jan. 23 in Chico, the Wildcats were held to their lowest point total since a 77-37 loss to DePaul University on Dec. 4, 1988. The last time a non-Division I team had held the Wildcats to so few points was when Pasadena Nazarene beat them 50-32 during the 1952-53 season.
The teams met for the second time last Thursday in Carson, and though the Wildcats’ offense was more effective and the score looked more respectable, the game was again dominated by the Toros. They outrebounded Chico State 40-20, holding the Wildcats to their fewest rebounds since 2007. Cal State Dominguez Hills also limited Baird to a season-low two shot attempts and a season-low three points in a suffocating display of ball denial and on-the-ball harassment.
That harassment continued Tuesday night, but they couldn’t keep Baird bottled up with the seconds ticking down on his career. He hit a three to cap a Sims and Conrad-led 12-2 run that pulled the Wildcats to within 48-47 with 7:24 to play. His driving bucket two minutes later tied the game at 51-apiece and he made two free throws to re-tie it at 53-apiece with 4:38 left. Baird then gave the Wildcats their first lead of the second half, 58-56, when Sims drove the lane and found him for a baseline three with the shot clock winding down and 2:37 to play.
Cal State Dominguez Hills tied the game with 42 seconds left, but Baird had the answer. He came off a screen to meet a pass from Jay Flores, took a dribble, and railed home an 18-footer that turned out to be the game-winner, putting the Wildcats ahead to stay at 60-52.
Sims corralled a rebound 15 seconds later, got fouled, and the freshman sank two free throws to stretch the lead to four. It was back to two after a quick Toros bucket, and then Baird made one out of two free throws with eight seconds left, setting up a possible game-tying shot for Cal State Dominguez Hills.
But the Wildcats smothered both Dominguez Hills long-range threats and the horn sounded with Tim McGrath holding the ball in the shadow of Chico State’s 7-footer Conrad.
Conrad played 13 minutes of the second half for a foul-plagued Terence Pellum, and his efforts helped key the win. The true freshman knocked down both of his shots and both of his free throws during the game’s final nine minutes while leading the team with four second-half rebounds. He also helped limit the Toros starting front line of Michael Cox and James Hawthorne and their own 7-footer, Amir Aguilar, to a combined seven points on 3-of-9 shooting after intermission.
True freshman center Jason Conrad was nails down the stretch.
The Wildcats dominated the first seven minutes and the last 10. But in between it was all Toros. Chico State’s early 11-6 advantage disappeared behind an 18-2 Dominguez Hills run. The Toros’ lead was 11 on two occasions in the opening stanza, but Sims’ three pointer trimmed the deficit to 30-25 at the half.
Cal State Dominguez Hills stretched the lead back to 11 with a 12-6 run to start the second half. The lead fluctuated between nine and 11 over the next three minutes and it seemed the Wildcats had little hope of breaking out of the Toros’ season-long stranglehold. But Sims provided some daylight and the rest of the Wildcats followed. He knocked down a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws to make it a six-point game with nine minutes left.
Zach Graves then found Conrad for back-to-back inside buckets and suddenly the Wildcats’ freshmen phenoms had carried them back into the game.
Baird took over from there, and the rest is Chico State men’s basketball playoff victory history.
Graves finished with eight points, four assists, a steal, and only one turnover. Flores chipped in seven points, four rebounds, and four steals. Roderick Hawkins, the reigning CCAA Player of the Week, was limited to a relatively quiet six points and six rebounds.
McGrath led Cal State Dominguez Hills with 15 pointst. But the Toros’ rebounding advantage was only 37-31 (they outrebounded the Wildcats 51-41 in their first meeting and 40-20 in their second) and they made just 4-of-12 free throws on the night.
Cal State Dominguez Hills, which entered the postseason as the CCAA’s hottest team with nine wins in its last 11 games, likely saw its season come to an end at 16-12.
Chico State improved to 16-12, including 8-6 away from Acker Gym. The 16 wins are double that of last year’s team, which was Greg Clink’s first.
GAME NOTES – This was Chico State’s first ever CCAA Championship Tournament game. The tournament was brought back from the dead two seasons ago, but the Wildcats had not finished among the league’s top eight to qualify for it until this season…The Wildcats had lost four straight postseason games since their last win…Chico State had lost seven of its last eight games against Dominguez Hills, including four straight in the Torodome. Their last win there before Tuesday came on Jan. 14, 2006…Baird scored just eight points in his first 82 minutes on the court against Dominguez Hills this season before scoring 13 in the last eight...Sims averaged 15.7 points in his three outings against the Toros and 6.7 in his other three games...Chico State beat Cal Poly Pomona 72-70 at home in overtime on Jan. 3, but lost to the Broncos 69-61 in Pomona on Feb. 5.
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