SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The No. 14/14 Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team (15-4, 11-4 CCAA) fell 63-57 to No. 11/10 Chico State (17-3, 13-3 CCAA) in its final home game of the season at The Sports Center on Saturday afternoon.
 
TOP PERFORMERS
Blake Seits – 11 points | 6 rebounds
Joel Mensah – 10 points | 8 rebounds
Jayce McCain – 10 points | 6 rebounds | 2 assists
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The first 20 minutes were a back-and-forth battle with nine ties and seven lead changes.
• The Cougars took their largest lead of the half at 19-14 with a turnaround jumper by Mensah with 10:32 to go.
• Two good free throws by Chico's Malik Duffy evened the game at 21-all with 6:37 left in the half.
• Both teams stayed within a basket of each other for the remainder of the half and went to the locker room tied at 28.
• Chico shot 32.1% (9-of-28) from the field in the first 20 minutes while holding CSUSM to 26.5% (9-of-34).
• Duffy led the game with 16 points at the break.
• The Wildcats began the second half on 7-0 run to take a 35-28 lead with 18:19 remaining in the game.
• A 5-0 run capped on a driving layup by Greg Milton III cut CSUSM's deficit to 37-35 with 11:59 to play.
• Chico took its largest lead of the game at 47-39 on a 3-pointer by Joshua Hamilton with 8:02 to go.
• CSUSM battled back to make it a 55-53 game on a pull-up jumper by McCain with 1:48 remaining.
• That was as close as the Cougars came to the Wildcats' lead as Chico maintained a cushion of at least four points for the remainder of the game.

 
FAST BREAKS

• CSUSM ended the game shooting 33% (20-of-60) from the floor – its worst performance of the season – while Chico came in at 36% (18-of-50).
• The Cougars once again had the advantage in steals at 8-4 – the 18th game they've done so in this season.
• Chico's six assists were the fewest by a CSUSM opponent this season.
• The Cougars and Wildcats split the season series for the fourth time since CSUSM joined the conference in 2015-16.
• Chico now has 7-4 lead in the all-time series and now edge CSUSM 3-2 when playing in San Marcos.
• This was CSUSM's fourth game against a ranked opponent this season.
• Seniors Sean Dunn, Alex Gil-Fernandez, Blake Seits and Lyle Sutton were honored prior to the game.

 
UP NEXT
CSUSM will play its next-to-last game of the regular season on Thursday as it heads to Sonoma State for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.