The Chico State men's basketball team bottled up the California Collegiate Athletic Association's highest scoring team and leading individual scorer in a sensational first-half defensive performance against visiting Cal State San Bernardino Saturday night. When it came to winning time late in the game, Chico State's veteran group sealed the deal for a 67-63 victory.
 
Malik Duffy scored 22 points and added seven rebounds and four assists to lead the Wildcats. Isaiah Brooks chipped in 14 points and made two free throws with five seconds left to put the game on ice after Colby Orr rebounded his own miss with 10 seconds left and passed it out to Brooks. Orr contributed 12 points off the bench while Kevin Warren scored all nine of his points in the second half. The senior trio of Duffy, Warren, and Brooks combined to score the Wildcats' final 19 points.
 
The 10^th-ranked Wildcats improved to 14-3 overall and 10-3 in the CCAA with their second win this season against the third-ranked Coyotes, who slipped to 17-2 overall and 11-2 in the CCAA. A single-game now separates the top four teams in the conference standings with six to play. Cal State San Marcos and Cal State Monterey Bay are tied with Chico State for second at 10-3. Chico State hosts Cal State Monterey Bay Thursday, on the same night that Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State San Marcos will meet in San Marcos.
 
The Wildcats held the Coyotes to seven made baskets in the first half while building a 34-20 lead. They closed off the driving lanes beautifully and then closed out on the 3-point shooters, helping force them into 13 misses in 14 first half tries. They held CCAA leading scorer Brandon Knapper—averaging 19.5 points per game entering play—to just six points on 1-of-13 shooting (including 0-of-10 from 3).
 
The lead was as large as 18 before Cal State San Bernardino began to chip away. The closed the gap to nine on a Darius Mickens dunk before Orr answered with a triple with 14:40 to go. The lead was seven when Duffy hit a pair of free throws with 9:37 remaining. The gap was down to six with a little more than six minutes to go when Warren railed a 3-pointer. It was down to four with 2:32 to play when Duffy drilled two more free throws. Those free throws marked Duffy's 1,000^th, and 1,001^st career points. The senior from Sacramento is now the ninth player in Chico State history to eclipse career totals of 1,000 points and 500 rebounds. He joins Jordan Semple, Isaiah Ellis, Amir Carraway, McFerren, Jim Schreiner, Aaron Martella, Roderick Hawkins, and Justin Briggs in that special fraternity.
 
The lead was 65-63 with 10 seconds remaining when Orr went in among the trees and shot a high-arching runner off the glass. It came down on the front of the rim and then bounced out. With five Coyotes and Orr the only Wildcat in the paint, he tipped it out of the hands of Darius Lubom and grabbed it near the baseline before passing it out to Brooks. Instead of swinging the ball in an attempt to run more clock, Brooks held it and was fouled. His confidence in his ability to hit the two free throws paid off. He made them both, sandwiched around a timeout, to put the game away.