ONTARIO – The Chico State men's basketball team will begin its fifth straight California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship Tournament Thursday. The Wildcats hope to turn a good performance at Citizens Business Bank Arena into a third straight trip to the NCAA Championship Tournament.
The Wildcats, seeded third in the six-team field, take on No. 6 San Francisco State Thursday at 2:35 p.m. The winner will face the No. 2 seed, Cal Poly Pomona, Friday at 2:35.
Every men's and women's postseason game will be broadcast locally on AM-1290 KPAY and streamed on the internet
HERE. Fans can also watch a live feed and follow live stats through the tournament homepage by clicking
HERE.
Wins on Thursday and Friday would propel the Wildcats into the conference tournament championship game for the third year in a row.
Chico State, 20-6, is ranked No. 6 in the West Region. The champions of the CCAA, Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and Pacific West Conference Championship Tournaments earn automatic bids into the NCAA Championship Tournament West Regional, along with five committee-selected at-large teams.
The Wildcats are attempting to go to three NCAA Championship Tournaments in a row for the first time since 1991-93 and the second time in the history of the program.
Chico State went 2-0 against San Francisco State in the regular season, winning 67-50 on Dec. 6 in San Francisco and 71-57 on Feb. 1 in Chico. Giordano Estrada and Amir Carraway contributed 16 points per game to lead the Wildcats, while Jordan Semple scored 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds per game.
The key to the Wildcats' win was their defense, however. They held the Gators to just 53.5 points while forcing 19 turnovers per game.
Chico State is 5-4 all time in the CCAA Championship Tournament. This will be their first meeting with the Gators in the event, but the two have clashed six times in the postseason, last in 1994, and each time in the Northern California Athletic Conference Shaugnessy Tournament. The Gators hold a 4-2 edge in those postseason matchups.
MILESTONE WATCH
Sean Park enters the postseason with 1,181 career points, needing 10 more to match Damario Sims for seventh in school history…Park is five 3-pointers shy of becoming the 14th Wildcats with 100 in his career…Jordan Semple is a dozen rebounds shy of 600, a milestone only five before him have reached…Semple, the Wildcats' career record holder in blocked shots, needs three more to reach 100.
