CHICO – Roderick Hawkins is too small to play inside and too slow to be a guard. Roderick Hawkins is too small to play inside and too slow to be a guard. Roderick Hawkins is too small to play inside and too slow to be a guard. Roderick Hawkins is too small to play inside and too slow to be a guard.
Getting sick of being told the same thing over and over? Hawkins was too. So the 6-foot-2 Jesuit High School product, undoubtedly skipped over in recruiting by a number of schools because of his “tweener” status, came to Chico State and made himself into one of the best players at the University. Now in his third season in the program, Hawkins has grown into one of the best players in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA).
Want proof? Friday night, in the Wildcats’ grind-it-out 62-61 win against visiting Cal State L.A., Hawkins notched career highs in points with 21 and rebounds with 11 and knocked down the game-tying and game-winning free throws with four seconds left. He even contributed three assists, two steals, and a blocked shot.
Hawkins scored nine of the Wildcats’ last 11 points and made a career-high 12-of-14 free throws, including all nine of his second-half attempts. The Wildcats needed every one of them against a Cal State L.A. team that entered play among the nation’s best teams in rebounding and defense.
The Golden Eagles led by six on three different occasions in the second half, but the Wildcats were unrelenting in their efforts to stay within striking distance. A Dwayne Jones 3-pointer with 7:35 to play gave Cal State L.A. a 51-45 advantage, but Hawkins dished to Zach Graves for an acrobatic and-one to keep it close. Following another Jones trey, Hawkins made a pair of free throws and then drew a charge on the defensive end to set up Jon Baird’s 3-pointer. The Golden Eagles stretched the lead back out to 59-53 at the 4:25 mark before Hawkins went to the rim for a three-point play.
The Cal State L.A. lead was still three with 1:27 left when Hawkins was fouled and made both free throws to make it 61-60 and he was fouled again on an aggressive move to the basket with four seconds to play. Hawkins has struggled with his free throw shooting during stretches of his career, but knocked down both to finish the night at 71 percent, which is the highest in his career.
The win snapped the Wildcats’ season-long three-game losing skid and pulled them into a four-way tie for third place in the CCAA with Cal State L.A., Cal Poly Pomona, and Saturday night’s opponent, Cal State Dominguez Hills, at 6-4. They are now 10-5 overall and have reached double digits in wins for the first time in five seasons.
Cal State L.A., also 10-5, got a season-high 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting from Dwayne Jones. Chris Fields, the CCAA’s second-leading scorer finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, but was limited to 5-of-15 shooting due in large part to the tough defense of Zach Graves. Leland Jones chipped in 13 points and eight rebounds.
Jon Baird, who along with Hawkins completes the Chico State program’s veteran group, showed tremendous courage in the victory. After a first half in which he was held scoreless and missed all five of his shots, the senior guard buried three-of-five threes en route to 13 second-half points. Terence Pellum added a crucial 10 points, eight rebounds, and two assists. Jay Flores finished with eight points, six assists, two steals, no turnovers in 36 minutes, and a broken nose after colliding with Pellum’s knee sliding for a loose ball at the end of the half.
“It’s huge,” said Hawkins, referring to the win, not Flores’ nose. “We got back home in front of our fans and
played with confidence. That’s what we needed to do to win.”
The Wildcats were coming off a stretch in which they played five road games in 13 games, finishing up that string with their third loss in a row Tuesday night at Cal State Stanislaus.
Now, they enter Saturday night’s game against the Toros with a chance to finish the first half of conference play in third place in the midst of a stretch in which they play nine of their last 13 regular-season games at home.
If they take care of the ball like they did Friday (only eight turnovers), they’ll certainly give themselves a good chance. Another outstanding effort by Hawkins would help as well. But you know what they say… He’s probably too small and too slow to do it twice in a row. Yeah, right.
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