ARCATA, Calif. – The No. 14/17 Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team (19-4) will be playing for its first CCAA Tournament Championship as it defeated No. 11/10 Chico State (19-4) by a score of 80-66 in the semifinals of the CCAA Tournament at Lumberjack Arena on Friday night.
 
TOP PERFORMERS
Alex Gil-Fernandez – 18 points | 4 rebounds | 3 assists | 3 steals
Blake Seits – 18 points | 4-of-5 3FG | 4-of-4 FT
Greg Milton III – 17 points | 6-of-9 FG | 3 rebounds | 3 assists
Jayce McCain – 10 points | 7 assists | 3 rebounds | 2 steals
Joel Mensah – 7 points | 6 rebounds | 1 blocked shot
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Cougars and Wildcats stayed withing four points of each other for the entire first half, trading the lead eight times in the first 20 minutes while tying nine times.
• The Wildcats took their final lead of the game with 1:43 remaining in the first half on a pair of Colby Orr free throws that made it 30-28.
• A Sean Dun layup and one free throw by Gil-Fernandez gave CSUSM a 31-30 lead at the break. The Cougars shot 44.4% (12-of-27) from the field while Chico came in at 52.4% (11-of-21).
• Chico led for just over nine minutes in the first half while CSUSM clocked in at 6:15.
• Milton tied the game high for points in the first half with 11.
• CSUSM began the second half on an 15-4 run. Chico was forced to take a timeout after a Sean Dunn layup to make it 46-34 with 15:30 to go.
• A 3-pointer by Seits gave the Cougars a 15-point lead at 51-36 with 13:43 remaining.
• A Donovan Watkins layup with 8:43 remaining put CSUSM up 61-45 and gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game.
• A 3-pointer by Chico's Malik Duffy with 8:02 to play put the Wildcats' deficit back down to single digits at 61-53.
• The Cougars' lead returned to double digits for the remainder of the game after Milton nailed a 3-pointers to make with 65-55 with 5:30 to go.
• CSUSM closed out the game with 80-66 lead with 37 seconds remaining after a pair of free throws by Seits.

 
FAST BREAKS

• The Cougars will be making their first-ever appearance in the championship game of the CCAA Tournament.
• CSUSM is now 2-1 all-time in CCAA postseason games.
• The Cougars ended the night shooting 50.9% (27-of-53) from the field – their fourth consecutive game shooting 50% or better.
• CSUSM has also tallied 15 or more assists in each of its past four games.
• The Cougars committed their second-fewest turnovers of the season with five. They set a single-game record with only two against Point Loma earlier this season.
• This was CSUSM's third win against a ranked opponent this season with Chico accounting for two of them.
• The Cougars had a 10-1 advantage in steals. CSUSM has posted more steals than its opponents in all but one game this season.
• CSUSM took a season-high 28 attempts from the charity stripe.

 


UP NEXT
Third-seeded CSUSM will play in its first-ever CCAA Championship game against first-seeded Cal State San Bernardino on Saturday at 8 p.m. in Arcata. The No. 6/5 Coyotes defeated Cal State Dominguez Hills by a score of 94-69 in the other semifinal matchup.