LA JOLLA – Michael Bethea, Jr. winked, Corey Silverstrom never blinked, and now the Chico State men's basketball team is on the brink of its second NCAA Championship Tournament West Regional title and trip to the Elite Eight in the past four seasons.
 
Bethea and Silverstrom made the decisive plays down the stretch as the Wildcats knocked off a conference champion for the second straight night with a 77–74 victory over 4^th-ranked Hawai'i Pacific Saturday night in RIMAC Arena on the campus of UC San Diego.
 
Silverstrom led the Wildcats with 17 points, Jalen McFerren scored 16, Bethea 13, and Robert Duncan 11. Isaiah Ellis finished with nine points and joined McFerren with seven rebounds.
 
"We've beaten two great teams in a row and I'm really excited about the opportunity we have on Monday," said Chico State Head Coach Greg Clink. "I feel like right now we're playing our best basketball of the season. We didn't come here this year to be participants. We came here to win."
 
The Wildcats will get that chance Monday night at 7 p.m. when they face the region's last conference champion standing, host UC San Diego, for a trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
 
Chico State and UC San Diego each won at home in their regular-season series, but the Tritons eliminated the Wildcats in the semifinals of the California Collegaite Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship Tournament on their way to adding the postseason tournament title to their regular season crown.
 
To get to the title game, Chico State had to withstand a frantic rally by the Sharks, who won the PacWest's regular season and conference tournament titles. Fueled by Bethea's inspired play off the bench and some torrid 3-point shooting (the Wildcats hit 12 of their first 20 3-point attempts), Chico State led 65–50 with nine minutes to play.

 

The Sharks scored the game's next eight points, however, and started to smell blood. The theme music to "Jaws" may as well have been playing in the arena as they got closer and closer, biting off chunk after chunk of the lead.
 
Then, with 2:38 to play, the comeback was complete. Connor Looney made two free throws to give HPU a 72–71 advantage. Chico State's 11^th turnover of the half followed, and the Sharks had a chance for some cushion. But Isaiah Ellis took a crucial charge, and then Duncan scored on a drive on the other end to put Chico State back up one with 1:48 to play.
 
Silverstrom, whom Clink credited with great defense on Looney, holding him to just 2-of-11 shooting, then one-upped Ellis for the defensive play of the game. Silverstrom stayed in front of the quicker HPU point guard, Jordan Martin, and when Martin lost control of the ball, Silverstrom scooped it up for a steal.
 
On the other end, the Wildcats milked the shot clock before Silverstrom attacked across the paint from the left wing before flipping up a shot off the glass and in for a three-point lead, just beating the shot clock.
 
After the Wildcats forced a miss and Bethea secured the rebound, he was fouled and hit one of two from the line. Bethea then did both Ellis and Silverstrom one better, sneaking across the lane to steal in the inbounds pass, and in essence, seal the win.

 
Silverstrom, the Wildcats' leading scorer, has struggled mightily with his shot over the second half of the season. But Saturday, he knocked down 7-of-14 attempts, including 3-of-8 from beyond the arc.
 
"I've had my struggles. I've been off and on throughout the second part of the season," admitted Silverstrom. "I was really just overthinking it. But Steph Curry's not shooting the ball well and I was thinking I was the only one. I've scored a lot of baskets throughout my career and I know what I'm capable of so I'm gonna keep shooting with confidence."
 
Exhibit one is the shot-clock beating bucket that put the Wildcats up three with 31 seconds left.
 
"I was just telling myself that these are the moments I live for and if I got the chance I was going to make something happen," said Silverstrom. "So when I got the ball and the shot clock was running down and the ball was in my hand I had confidence I was going to make the play and luckily I did."
 
Bethea was the Wildcats' playmaker in the first half. The Sharks led what to that point had been a knock down, drag-out defensive dominated game 30–29 with 2:28 left in the half when Bethea flipped the script.
 
He went to the free throw line and knocked down a pair to put Chico State back in the lead. It was the seventh lead change of the half. And the last until Hawai'i Pacific surged back ahead in the closing minutes.
 
While Bethea was at the line, one of the Sharks' fans gave him grief for his shorts, which he pulls up higher than the average 'Cat. After he made both, Bethea offered a playful smile in the fans' direction.
 
The fan took a liking to the attention and let Bethea know it. Bethea took notice in the relatively quiet arena. Bethea let his play do the talking. The senior transfer from Grambling State scored eight points in the span of a little more than two minutes as the Wildcats closed the half on a 10–0 run to take a 39–30 advantage. Bethea buried his second straight 3-pointer–a 26-footer–at the buzzer and turned to give the fan a wink.
 
"I'm from New York. That's what we do," said Bethea. "They started talking and I got hyped."
 
The Wildcats have now won 25 games for the fourth time in the program's history. They have a chance to break the record Monday night, and break the hearts of another higher seed in the process.
 
NCAA Championship Tournament West Regional Schedule
La Jolla, Calif. – RIMAC Arena
Friday, March 10
12:00 p.m. – #6 Chico State 96, vs. #3 Western Washington 83
2:30 p.m. – #2 Hawai'i Pacific 73, #7 Sonoma State 61
5:00 p.m. – #4 California Baptist 71, #5 San Francisco State 50
7:30 p.m. – #1 UC San Diego 94, #8 Dixie State 68
Saturday, March 11
5:00 p.m. – #6 Chico State 77, #2 Hawai'i Pacific 74
7:30 p.m. – #1 UC San Diego 84, #4 California Baptist 80
Monday, March 13
7:00 p.m. – #6 Chico State (25-7) vs. #1 UC San Diego (27-5)
 
Winner advances to the…
NCAA Division II Championship Elite Eight
March 22-25 – Sioux Falls, S.D.
 
GAME NOTES
Justin Briggs' first-half blocked shot gave him 63 on the season, breaking the school's single-season record…Jalen McFerren made 5-of-7 3s Saturday and has now made 83 on the season–the fifth most in the program's single-season history…The Wildcats hit 12-of-24 3s, become the first team all season to hit 50 percent of their 3s against the Sharks, who ranked third in the nation in 3-point field-goal percentage defense entering the weekend…Chico State has now hit 25-of-50 from beyond the arc in the NCAA Tournament…Duncan dished out five assists to give him 282 in his career and move past current Chico State employee Antone Curtis into fifth all time.