Chico State Athletics

Imagine going to work and being asked to sit and do nothing except watch all of your co-workers. Suddenly, you’re asked to immediately present to the board something you haven’t recently worked on. Welcome to James Staniland’s world. The Chico State men’s basketball team’s sharpshooter sits for long stretches, game after game, but when he gets the call, he’s expected to answer at an extremely high level.

Thankfully for the Wildcats, he tends to do just that. He did Saturday night, playing perhaps his best game of Chico State’s CCAA schedule, knocking down a trio of 3-pointers in 10 minutes of action to help lead the Wildcats to a crucial 66-57 road win at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Staniland was summoned from the bench with 12:03 left in the first half and the Wildcats leading by 1. Thirty seconds later a Staniland 3 found the bottom of the net to stretch the lead to four.

The lanky junior re-entered the fray at the 5:07 mark, and hit another 3-pointer 1:33 later to give the Wildcats a 37-35 lead. They never trailed again. Staniland helped make sure of that when, 16 seconds after making his first appearance of the second half, he sank his third 3-pointer to stretch the Wildcats’ lead to 52-45.

Staniland, who leads the Wildcats in 3-point shooting percentage at 44 percent, currently boasts the ninth best percentage in Chico State single-season history.