TURLOCK, Calif. – Entering the CCAA Men's Basketball Tournament as the No. 2 seed and reigning champions, the Cal State San Marcos men's basketball team (18-9) will face sixth-seeded Chico State (13-15) in the semifinals on Friday at noon in Ed & Bertha Fitzpatrick Arena on the campus of Stanislaus State.

LAST WEEK

• CSUSM capped off the regular season with an 80-75 win against Cal Poly Humboldt last Thursday before celebrating Senior Day with a 61-58 victory against Sonoma State on Saturday.

COUGARS EARN FOUR ALL-CCAA NODS

• For the second consecutive season, CSUSM placed four Cougars on the All-CCAA team.
• Greg Milton III earned first-team honors while Quinn Denker, Jayce McCain and Joel Mensah were each named to the second team.
• Milton was on the second team last season while McCain was on the first team.
• This is the fourth time CSUSM has earned four All-CCAA selections.

COUGARS BY THE NUMBERS

• CSUSM enters the CCAA Tournament with its highest-ever seed as the Cougars finished the regular season in second place with a 17-5 conference record.
• In the latest edition of the NCAA West Region rankings, the Cougars were ranked seventh for the second consecutive week.
• The Cougars were a perfect 11-0 at home against CCAA opponents this season.
• CSUSM enters the CCAA Tournament with the ninth-best turnover margin in the nation at 4.7.
• The Cougars are only committing 10.2 turnovers per game, the best in the conference and 12th best nationally.
• Leading the CCAA and ranking 22nd nationally, CSUSM has an assist/turnover ratio of 1.38.
• The Cougars have the conference's best scoring defense at 65.9 points allowed per game and rank 30th nationally.
• CSUSM also leads the CCAA in steals per game at 8.1.
• Shooting 38.3% from beyond the arc, CSUSM ranks second in the league and 33rd nationally.
• The Cougars have the second-best field-goal percentage in the CCAA at 46.4 while having the fifth-best field-goal percentage defense at 44.1.
• CSUSM is outscoring opponent by 4.8 points per game – second most in the CCAA.
• The Cougars have the third-best free throw percentage in the league at 72.1.
• CSUSM is forcing 14.89 turnovers per game to rank third in the conference.
• Jayce McCain has the 18th-best assist/turnover ratio in the nation and second best in the conference at 2.76.
• McCain is five steals away from matching Danny Redmon's CSUSM career record of 147. He has already played in the most games (80), made the most starts (71) and played the most minutes (2,591) of any player in program history.
• Greg Milton III is CSUSM's leading scorer at 17.6 per game and ranks fourth in the CCAA. His 34.5 minutes per game rank third in the conference.
• Joel Mensah is the league's third-most accurate shooter at 56% while his 7.7 rebounds per game rank fourth.

 
 
 

GAME 28 | NO. 6 SEED CHICO STATE
Date	Friday, March 3, 2023
Time	12 p.m.
Location	Turlock, Calif.
Venue	Ed & Bertha Fitzpatrick Arena
Records	CSUSM (18-9) CHICO (13-15)
Live Stats	SideArm Stats
Live Video ($)	CCAA Network
Tickets	HomeTown Ticketing

 
SEMIFINALS AGAINST CHICO

• Friday's game will be a rematch of last year's semifinal in Arcata as the third-seeded Cougars downed the second-seeded Wildcats with an 80-66 victory.
• Chico earned a 74-71 win over third-seeded San Francisco State on Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinal round.
• The Cougars and Wildcats split the regular-season series as each team won on their home floor. Chico won the first game 83-77 in Chico on Dec. 3 while CSUSM took the second game 61-51 in San Marcos on Feb. 9.
• Chico capped its regular season with a 59-58 win over Cal Poly Pomona last Saturday after falling 99-78 to Cal State San Bernardino on Thursday.
• The Wildcats finished tied for sixth in the CCAA standings with Cal State East Bay but won the tiebreaker over the Pioneers.
• Chico attempts the most 3-pointers per game in the conference at 25.3.
• Committing 11.7 turnovers per game, the Wildcats are allowing the second fewest in the league.
• Scoring 73.1 points per game, Chico has the third-best scoring offense in the league, but it has the ninth-best scoring defense at 73.9 points allowed per game.
• The Wildcats are coming down with the fifth-most rebounds per game in the CCAA at 36.26.
• Chico has the second-worst field-goal percentage in the conference at 42.0.
• Jojo Murphy is the Wildcats' leading scorer at 15.7 points per game, ranking seventh in the CCAA.
• CSUSM is 6-8 in the all-time series against Chico and 1-0 against the Wildcats on a neutral floor.

POTENTIAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

• If CSUSM is successful in its semifinal game against Chico, the Cougars will have the opportunity to face top-seeded Cal State Bernardino, fourth-seeded Cal Poly Humboldt or fifth-seeded Sonoma State in Saturday night's championship game.
• The Cougars split the regular-season series against the Coyotes while sweeping both series against the Lumberjacks and Seawolves.
• CSUSM defeated CSUSB by a score of 85-71 in last year's championship game to earn its first CCAA Tournament Championship.

  
A NEW CAMPAIGN

• The Cougars were voted to finish second in the 2022-23 CCAA Preseason Coaches Poll.
• Nine Cougars return from the 2021-22 team, including All-CCAA first-teamer Jayce McCain and second-teamer Greg Milton III.
• CSUSM is joined this year by five transfers, including sophomore Quinn Denker (West Valley College), redshirt junior Edwyn Collins (Riverside City College), graduate Zack Perlstein (Cal State East Bay), redshirt junior Bing Huang (Johnson County CC) and redshirt junior Chris Howard (Palomar College).
• Rounding out the Cougars' roster of 15 is lone freshman Jermaine Rogers II (Ruben S. Ayala HS).

THE FOSTER FILE

• Head coach B.J. Foster enters his seventh season in charge of the CSUSM Men's Basketball program after taking over the head position in 2016.
• Under his leadership, the Cougars earned their first CCAA Tournament Championship in 2022 and made their first NCAA West Regional appearance.
• Prior to becoming head coach of the Cougars, Foster was an assistant coach with the team from 2013 to 2016.
• Foster has tallied a career record of 97-68 (.588).