Box Score Giordano Estrada is one of the newest members of the Chico State basketball program. It hasn't taken him long to become a fan favorite. Estrada scored 10 straight points to turn a three-point deficit into a seven-point lead with 1:27 to play and the Wildcats held on to upset 9th-ranked Seattle Pacific 73-70 in the finale of the 54th annual Carl's Jr. Mac Martin Invitational Saturday night at Acker Gym.
Estrada, the tournament's Most Valuable Player, converted a four-point play to put Chico State in the lead for good and then buried triples on two of the Wildcats' next three possessions. The senior transfer from Sacramento State finished with a game-high 19 points, hitting 5-of-9 shots from beyond the arc along the way.
Jordan Semple, also named to the All-Tournament team, came off the bench to score 14 points and added a pair of blocked shots. Rashad Parker finished with 12 points, Sean Park scored 11 and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. And Amir Carraway finished with nine points and a career-high five assists, the last of which set up Estrada for the four-point play.
Chico State improved to 4-1 with the win, while Seattle Pacific fell to 7-2. In the night's first matchup, San Francisco State beat Dominican 88-79.
Chico State's offense will get the headlines. But its defense keyed the win. The Wildcats held a Seattle Pacific squad the scored 101 against San Francisco State Friday night to more than 12 points below its season scoring average.
The Falcons, shooting 51 percent entering the game, shot a season-low 45 percent against a swarming Wildcats' defense that seemed to contest every shot. Greg Clink's "No Threes!" defense was also very effective as the Falcons were just 6-of-21 from distance one night after torching San Francisco State with 19 three-pointers.
Two of those came in the first three minutes while Seattle Pacific was building a 10-3 lead. The advantage grew as large as 11 before the Wildcats began to chip away.
Back-to-back triples from Semple and Park, followed by a pair of Chris Magalotti free throws finally gave Chico State its first lead with 9:13 left.
That was the first of five lead changes in the second half.
Estrada's four-point play (He was knocked over by Todd Ryan trying to close out after a nice cross-court find by Carraway on the left wing.) gave Chico State the lead for good, 64-63, with 3:43 to play.
Semple set up Estrada on the right wing on the Wildcats' ensuing possession and his triple stretched the lead to 67-63. And his step-back 3 made it 70-63.
Park knocked down a pair of crucial free throws with 18 seconds left to stretch the Chico State lead to 72-68 and then Carraway made 1-of-2 from the stripe to make it 73-70 with nine ticks left.
Seattle Pacific could only manage Riley Stockton's off-balance try form 30 feet at the buzzer and it caromed off the top of the glass and away.
Cory Hutsen scored 18 points while All-Tournament team selections David Downs and Patrick Simon scored 16 and 15, respectively, to pace the Falcons.
Chico State is back in action next weekend for a pair of California Collegiate Athletic Association road matchups at San Francisco State (Friday) and Sonoma State (Saturday).
San Francisco State 88, Dominican 79
All-Tournament Team selection Nefi Perdomo scored a game-high 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting as the Gators improved to 2-1. Will Overton Jr. finished with 17 points and Calvin Otiono scored a dozen.
Matt Hayes led Dominican (6-2) with 24 points and Devin Golston scored 22.
