CHICO, Calif. – Fresh off reaching 1,000 points in her illustrious career, Makenzi Laporte dropped in a career-high 25 Thursday night, but it wasn't quite enough as the Chico State women's basketball team ran out of gas in its 78-69 loss with No. 3 Cal State Dominguez Hills in Acker Gym.
The Wildcats fall to 13-4 overall and 8-3 to complete the first half of the CCAA schedule. The Toros, who have now past their best start in program history set in their West Region championship season two years ago, are now 19-0 and 11-0 in the conference.
Laporte also had a good night on the free throw line, going a perfect 9-for-9 to break her former career best 8-for-8 set in front of her hometown crowd at Cal State Monterey Bay earlier this month.
Meadow Aragon was another big contributor to the effort, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, including six on the offensive side of the glass, extending her streak of making a double-double in the last four games.
Ciarah Michalik was another Wildcat that had a big day going to the boards, collecting nine rebounds for a season high and just one away from her career best. Jordan Allred and Jadence Clifton each had 11 points.
The Wildcats closed out the day shooting 42.3 percent (22-for-52) and dominated the Toros in the rebounding column 38-31.
Dominguez Hills was led by Teagan Thurman as the forward scored 18 points including four rare 3-pointers in the game. Nala Williams also had an 18-point night.
The defensively strong Toros had capitalized on the Wildcats' miscues by scoring 27 points.
Although Dominguez Hills went on to beat Chico State by nine, the Wildcats made every effort keeping the deficit close. Trailing 36-28 at halftime, the Wildcats did work their way down to a two-point deficit with six minutes left in the third quarter. But the Toros was able to get on a run again and build back the eight-point lead ad the end of the period.
Down by as many as 11 early into the fourth quarter, Laporte, Aragon and Clifton went on a 9-0 run in the span of 1:30 to bring it back down to two with 7:41 left. Dominguez Hills responded with a 12-3 momentum to take a 69-58 lead three minutes later and Chico State could not recover from it.
The Wildcats have to put this game in the rearview mirror and prepare for Saturday's matchup with Cal State LA, which held off Cal Poly Humboldt 55-52 in Arcata tonight.
Postgame Notes
• Despite the loss, Chico State still leads the all-time series 45-22, dating back to their first meeting in 1982.
• Head coach Brian Fogel, in his 17
th season at the helm, is 262-177 in his career. He is currently chasing Fran Coslet's program record 286 wins.
• The Wildcats have not lost two straight games in the regular season in a year, when they fell on the road to Cal State LA (Jan. 18) and Dominguez Hills (Jan. 20).
• Now that she joined the elite clubs of 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in her career, Makenzi Laporte can now start the climb in the record books. At the end of today's game, Laporte now has 1,026 points and is now chasing Jazmine Miller (2010-14), who had 1,231 points in her career at Chico State. In the rebounding column, Laporte has 527 and is now catching up to her former teammate Haley Ison (2018-23), who had 540 during her time in a Wildcat uniform.
• Prior to tipoff, head coach Brian Fogel presented Makenzi Laporte a decorated basketball to commemorate her 1,000-point/500-rebound achievement this season.
