CHICO, Calif. – It seemed it was gone in a flash. The lead the Chico State men’s basketball team worked so hard to get – chipping away at Humboldt State’s lead bit by bit, only to see the Lumberjacks build it back up, and then start the process over again – lasted just over a minute. That was about two minutes too short as Humboldt State scored the final five points of the game during those final two minutes in a 65-61 win, handing Chico State its first home loss in four games in the 2008-09 campaign.
Chico State trailed from the 9:49 mark in the first half after Zac Tiedeman’s go-ahead 3-pointer until Andy Bocian buried a 3-pointer from 25-feet out to put Chico State ahead 61-60 and bring the crowd of 1,015 inside Acker Gym to its feet with just 3:04 to play. The Wildcats had two chances to add to it, but following a missed jumper and turnover, Tiedeman put Humboldt State back in the lead for good with a jumper at the 1:46 mark. Tiedeman added three more clutch free throws down the stretch to seal the Lumberjacks’ win.
Humboldt State retained its share of the lead atop the California Collegiate Athletic Association standings, improving to 11-4 overall and 4-1 in the CCAA. Chico State dipped to 4-8 overall and 1-4 in the CCAA.
Fortunately for the Wildcats, the sting of the loss will have little time to linger. They host Sonoma State Saturday night at 7:30.
Following Tiedeman’s bucket that gave Humboldt State back the lead with just under two minutes remaining, Jameson Figgatt blocked Andy Bocian’s layup attempt. Tiedeman was then fouled a made 1-of-2 free throws to stretch the lead to 63-61. Again the Wildcats had an opportunity to tie or take the lead, but Nick Lonnegren’s 3-point attempt with 24 seconds left was blocked by Tiedeman. Kyle Baxter missed the front end of his one-and-one attempt, but the Wildcats failed to capitalize when Junior Russell’s layup rimmed out, Tiedeman grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and sank two free throws with just 14 seconds left to put the game on ice.
Bocian, the CCAA’s leading scorer, led all players with 19 points and seven rebounds. His second bucket of the game, just two-and-a-half minutes in, also moved him past Ken Piercy (1952-56) into sixth on Chico State’s all-time scoring list with 1,168. Only Scott Land (second with 1,567 points) and Deon Robinson (fifth with 1,351) have scored more points for the Wildcats in the last 50 years.
Roderick Hawkins chipped in 10 points, Russell scored nine, and Justin Argenal and Zach Graves added eight points apiece.
Tiedeman led Humboldt State with 14 points while hitting 3-of-4 field goals, his lone 3-point attempt, and 7-of-8 free throws. Ernie Spada finished with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.
After missing six of their first eight shots, the Lumberjacks turned things around dramatically, sinking 21-of-33 the rest of the way and finishing at 56 percent. David Broome helped that cause by coming off the bench and dishing out five assists, each of which set up a teammate for a high-percentage shot. Chico State shot just 39 percent, including 24 percent from 3-point range.
Chico State led 12-7 in the early going, but the Lumberjacks responded with a 13-3 run in which Tiedeman scored seven points and built a lead of 20-15. That lead was eventually cut to two, grew back even larger to 35-25, and was then whittled back down to 35-31 when Russell fed Lonnegren for a layup just before the halftime buzzer.
Early in the second half the Lumberjacks build the lead back to seven, saw it trimmed back to two, and then rebuilt it back to 51-42 on a Spada 3-pointer with 12:32 remaining. Twice the Wildcats cut the deficit back to three, only to see Humboldt State respond with runs that stretched its lead to seven on three separate occasions.
The Wildcats finally made a run that got them the lead when Bocian railed a 3-pointer, Russel scored a layup, and then Bocian made another trey to cap an 8-0 run that put them ahead 61-60. Unfortunately, the lead did not last.
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