Tournament Most Valuable Player Corey Silverstrom scored 23 points and hit five 3-pointers for the second night in a row as the Chico State men's basketball team earned its third wire-to-wire win of the week, beating Northwest Nazarene University 79–68 to close out the 57th Carl's Jr. Mac Martin Invitational.
Silverstrom, who shot 8-of-16, including 5-of-10 from beyond the arc, finished with 23 points to lead four Wildcats in double-figures. Fellow All-Tournament selection Jalen McFerren railed 4-of-6 triples and finished with 16 points. Isaiah Ellis had 15 points. And Nate Ambrosini, who also earned All-Tournament honors, scored a career-high 14 points.
The Wildcats outrebounded the Crusaders 36-17, led by Robert Duncan's season-high nine boards.
Chico State, ranked No. 19 in the nation, has now won four straight to improve to 5-1. Northwest Nazarene fell to 2-3.
Robert Duncan grabbed a team-high nine
rebounds Saturday. (Emily Bentz Photography)
The Wildcats raced out to a 22–6 lead. McFerren's went coast-to-coast for a score and then Ellis hit a 3-pointer to put the Wildcats up 19–6 less than 10 minutes into the game. They led by 10 or more from that point on.
Silverstrom scored the team's first six points on a pair of 3-pointers, and Ambrosini made a trio of triples during that opening 22–6 push.
They took a 21-point lead into the break and stretched it to 25 early in the second half, helped along the way by 3-pointers from McFerren, Silverstrom, and Ambrosini.
Trailing by 25, the Crusaders suddenly caught fire. They hit their final 11 shots, including a trio of 3-pointers. But the Wildcats' lead never dropped below 11.
By hitting those final 11 field goals, Northwest Nazarene raised its field-goal percentage to 53%, becoming just the second team to shoot 50 percent against the Wildcats since the start of the 2014-15 season.
Chico State will play its fourth game in a seven-day span Monday when it takes on Simpson University in Redding at 7 p.m. That game will be broadcast on the Internet only at www.chicowildcats.com. The Wildcats will then open conference play at UC San Diego Thursday and Cal State San Marcos Saturday.
Cal State East Bay beat Academy of Art 78–71 in Saturday night's first game. The Pioneers got a game-high 22 points from freshman Druce Asah, who hit 7-of-9 three-pointers. Jalen Richard chipped in 18 points and Micah Dunhour scored 14. Those three Pioneers joined McFerren, Ambrosini, and Silverstrom on the All-Tournament team.
