The strong smell of vinyl and ink greets guests of the Chico State men’s basketball office these days. That’s because a crisp and bright powder blue and white CCAA Men’s Basketball Championship banner is hanging proudly dead ahead in front of the office’s picture windows. The Wildcats’ goal this week is to stink up the office a bit more with a dark blue CCAA Championship Tournament title banner.
That quest begins Tuesday night when the top-seeded Wildcats (22-6) host No. 8 seed Cal State Dominguez Hills in the opening round. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30. The game will be broadcast locally on AM 1290 KPAY and available online via the Wildcat Webcast button at www.chicowildcats.com.
This will mark the first men’s postseason game in Acker Gym since the Wildcats beat Humboldt State 80-65 in the opening round of the Northern California Athletic Conference Shaughnessy Tournament back on March 2, 1994.
Tickets for Chico State’s home playoff game in nearly 18 years are now available at the University Box Office, open Monday and Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets will only be available at the Box Office until 5 p.m. Tuesday. They’ll be available at the door beginning at 6 p.m. that night.
Ticket prices range from $3-10: $10 for reserved North Side seats; $8 for general admission; $5 for visiting students and seniors; $3 for children 12 and under and Chico State students with ID. Acker Backers and season ticket holders have their seats on hold until Tuesday at noon. If they are not claimed by that point, the tickets will return to the inventory for sale.
The box office is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The box office phone number is 898-6333.
Chico State, the No. 4 team in the NCAA West Region rankings, enters postseason play having won three straight, eight of its last nine, and 15 of its last 18 games. The Wildcats have won their last five games at Acker Gym and are 13-2 at home this season.
Tuesday’s contest will mark the third straight year that the ’Cats and Toros have met in the first round of the CCAA Championship Tournament. The Wildcats upset the Toros 63-60 behind the efforts of then-freshmen Damario Sims and Jason Conrad back on March 2, 2010. Sims scored a season-high 21 points, including two crucial free throws with 14 seconds left. Conrad played big minutes down the stretch, knocking down both of his shots and both of his free throws and then thwarting a potential game-tying shot as the buzzer sounds.
The Toros exacted some revenge last season, beating the Wildcats 75-59.
This season the teams split the regular season series. Ironically, it was Dominguez Hills that handed Chico State one of its two home losses, beating the Wildcats 49-46 on Jan. 13 as Chico State made just one basket in the final 10 minutes and three in the second half. But they turned the tables on the Toros less than two weeks ago, beating them 66-57 as Sims and Amir Carraway scored 16 points apiece.
If the Wildcats win Tuesday, they’ll take on the lowest remaining seed in a CCAA semifinal game Friday afternoon at 2:30 at RIMAC Arena on the campus of UC San Diego in La Jolla.
The championship games will take place on Saturday, March 3.
A win would also mark the Wildcats’ fifth ever 23-win season and first since the 1993 team finished 23-7. The school record for wins in a season is 25, set in 1984. The Wildcats would match that with the tournament title.
All four semifinals and championship games will be televised live on Comcast Hometown Network and available to Comcast cable subscribers on Channel 104. The broadcast feed also will be streamed live through Stretch Internet at www.goccaa.org.
Live stats will be provided at www.goccaa.org and available by logging on to any computer or mobile device.
2012 CCAA MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
First Round – Tuesday, Feb. 28
No. 8 Cal State Dominguez Hills at No. 1 Chico State; 7:30 p.m.
No. 7 Cal State Stanislaus at No. 2 Cal Poly Pomona; 7:30 p.m.
No. 6 Cal State L.A. at No. 3 Humboldt State; 7:30 p.m.
No. 5 Cal State San Bernardino at No. 4 Sonoma State; 7:30 p.m.
Semifinals – Friday, March 2 at RIMAC Arena
Men’s semifinal game No. 1: Second-highest remaining seed vs. Third-highest remaining seed – 12:00 p.m.
Men’s semifinal game No. 2: Highest remaining seed vs. Lowest remaining seed – 2:30 p.m.
Finals – Saturday, March 3 at RIMAC Arena
Men’s championship game: 5 p.m.
