Box Score It was a McNightmare for the Chico State men’s basketball team Friday in La Jolla. The Wildcats were unable to stop Tritons duo James McCann and Tyler McGrath. And they were unable to stop sabotaging themselves with mental mistakes, missed free throws, and turnovers down the stretch in a 65-62 loss that snapped their four-game win streak.
Despite hitting just one of their first eight free throws the Wildcats led 53-51 with seven minutes to play and were tied 56-all with 3:38 remaining. But Chico State’s next four possessions resulted in two turnovers, a missed layup and an airballed 3-pointer. Meanwhile, McGrath scored five straight points and then assisted on a layup to give UC San Diego a seemingly insurmountable seven-point lead with 55 seconds to play.
The Wildcats nearly mounted the comeback anyway. Amir Carraway’s 3-pointer and a blocked shot by Jason Conrad that led to two Carraway free throws trimmed the lead to 63-61 with 33 seconds to play. They even got the ball back down two on a UC San Diego turnover. But McCann stripped the ball from Damario Sims and then made two free throws with five seconds left to put the game away.
McCann finished with 21 points and McGrath had a game-high 24 as the Tritons snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Wildcats.
Carraway led Chico State with 17 points and Rashad Parker had 13. But the Wildcats – 10th in the nation in free throw percentage entering the weekend – were just 16-of-27 from the charity stripe and missed 24 of their final 33 field goal attempts. Jordan Semple finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and a pair of blocked shots off the bench. But his technical foul after one of those blocked shots cost the Wildcats a chance to build momentum and eventually helped lead to his disqualification when he picked up his fifth foul with 3:08 to play.
Chico State fell to 7-4 overall and 4-3 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). UC San Diego improved to 3-7 overall and 2-5 in the CCAA.
The game provided a great opportunity for the defending CCAA Champion Wildcats to get right back into the conference title picture. First-place Cal State San Bernardino’s shocking home loss to Cal State Stanislaus was final well before the final horn sounded in La Jolla. Instead, the Wildcats head into San Bernardino Saturday night two games behind the Coyotes and Cal Poly Pomona, a game behind San Francisco State, and in a fourth-place tie with Cal State L.A. and Cal State East Bay.
Sims finished with six points for Chico State, leaving him just one shy of 1,000 for his career.
