Josh Jackson rang in the New Year with nothing but four quiet tickles of the twine. The Chico State senior sank four straight free throws over the final 11 seconds to help the Wildcats seal the deal on a 63-59 victory against visiting Cal State Stanislaus Monday night at Acker Gym. Sean Park led the Wildcats with 16 points, while freshmen Jordan Barton and Jordan Semple combined for 15 points and 12 rebounds off the bench.
The Wildcats improved to 9-3 overall and 3-3 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) with their fifth straight home victory. However, this marked their first home game since late November. It was also the first of five in a row. A win Friday night against Cal State San Bernardino would give the team its longest home winning streak in the Greg Clink era.
If the Wildcats defend as well as they did Monday night, they'll give themselves a good chance. Barton, Jason Conrad, Sam Hicks and Amir Carraway helped hold CCAA scoring leader Reggie Jones to 17 points on 8-of-17 shooting and five turnovers. The Warriors (7-3, 3-3 CCAA) averaged 78 points per game coming in, but were held to a season low in scoring.
The Wildcats also exacted some revenge with the win. Cal State Stanislaus beat Chico State 79-77 in overtime back on Dec. 7 in Turlock.
They did it with defense, by outrebounding the Warriors 48-27, and by breaking out of a long 3-point-shooting slump by hitting 5-of-12 from distance in the second half.
Chico State trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half and by four at the break. But Jay Flores, Damario Sims and Amir Carraway each canned threes in the opening four minutes of the second stanza to tie the game. The lead changed hands five times over the next 10 minutes with neither team grabbing a lead larger than four. But Park and Semple sank triples on consecutive possessions to give Chico State its largest lead of the game at 57-52 with 3:45 to play.
Cal State Stanislaus tied it at 57-apiece on Jones’ jumper at the 2:35 mark, but Park put Chico State ahead for good with an acrobatic lay-in 19 seconds later.
Ronnie Sawyer made one of two free throws to cut the lead to one with 1:41 remaining, but Chico State used an offensive rebound to milk more than a minute off the clock. So despite not scoring, the Wildcats still led by one with 36 seconds to play. Barton bothered Jones on a jumper that was well short with 14 seconds remaining and Jackson jumped high for the rebound and was fouled with 11 ticks left.
He made both.
Jackson was fouled again after grabbing the rebound of Vince Fuller’s potential game-tying shot with three seconds left
He made both.
Game over.
The Wildcats, who played their first five CCAA games on the road, are now just a game out of third place with Cal State San Bernardino and UC San Diego coming to town this weekend. Cal State San Bernardino is in second place at 5-1 in the CCAA and 6-3 overall. UC San Diego is 5-6 overall and 1-5 in the CCAA.
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