CHICO – The Chico State men’s basketball team is sleeping better at night. After all, they just won the first game of a five-game homestand and now enjoy a three-game cushion with six to go in the race for their first California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship Tournament berth and their first postseason berth of any kind since the 2004-05 season.
Chico State’s 72-64 win against Cal State Stanislaus on Tuesday, coupled with Cal State Monterey’s loss to San Francisco State Wednesday, has the stretch run of the regular season off to the best possible start for the Wildcats. Four wins in their final six games would guarantee a playoff berth for Chico State, now 12-9 overall and 8-8 in the CCAA.
Chico State’s hopes to catch Cal State Dominguez Hills for fourth place and a first-round home playoff game were bolstered a bit as well on Tuesday. The Wildcats still trail the Toros by three games and will need some help, but will also have a chance to make up some ground on their own with a game at Dominguez Hills on the second-to-the-last night of the regular season.
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Playoff conversations will certainly increase in the coming weeks and the postseason picture will likely be clearer following this weekend’s slate of games. The Wildcats, locked in a tie for fifth place with Cal State L.A., host Cal State East Bay Friday at 7:30 and UC San Diego Saturday at 7:30. (The Chico State women’s basketball team, also in the middle of a run toward the playoffs, host games at 5:30 on both nights.)
Cal State East Bay – known as Cal State Hayward when the Pioneers were one of Chico State’s Northern California Athletic Conference rivals in the 80s – is 5-15 overall and 2-12 in its inaugural CCAA campaign. The Wildcats beat the Pioneers 68-53 on the strength of Jon Baird’s season high 25 points the first time they met this season on Jan. 9. Chico State leads the all-time series 13-10 following that win, which was the first meeting between the teams since 1998.
UC San Diego enters this weekend’s action with an overall record of 5-13 and conference mark of 4-11. The Wildcats defeated the Tritons 77-68 on Jan. 7 as Zach Graves le five Wildcats in double-figures with 18 points. Roderick Hawkins recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. UC San Diego’s Jordan Lawley, the reigning CCAA Player of the Week and the conference’s leading scorer at 21.1 points per game, led all players with 22 points.
The Wildcats lead the all-time series 10-9 and they’re 5-4 at Acker Gym against the Tritons following last season’s 60-57 victory on Justin Argenal’s game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Baird passed Argenal on the Wildcats’ career 3-pointer list last weekend and is now just four behind Pat Condon and Deon Robinson, who are tied for third on that list with 149 career threes. Condon is the only two-year player with more career threes than Baird's 145.
