Chico State Athletics

ARCATA – With a win over Humboldt State Saturday in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship Tournament final, the Chico State women’s basketball team had a chance to officially punch its ticket to the NCAA Championship Tournament West Regional. But it was not to be – with the Lumberjacks’ convincing 85-55 win over the Wildcats at Lumberjack Arena, it is Humboldt that earns the CCAA’s automatic bid to the West Regional, leaving the ’Cats awaiting Monday’s NCAA selection committee decision as to whether Chico State will be awarded an at-large berth to the West Region…or if the 2009-10 season has come to an end.

Humboldt State (19-10 overall), posting its first victory over Chico State in three tries this season, completed one of the quickest turnarounds in CCAA postseason history en route to winning the conference tournament championship. After dropping their final four regular season games and six of their last eight, the Lumberjacks regrouped to beat Cal State Monterey Bay in the tournament opener, upset No. 1 seed UC San Diego Friday, and then used 14 3-pointers as the catalyst to overwhelm Chico State in Saturday’s tourney title game. Saturday’s loss ended the Wildcats’ 10-game winning streak and gives Chico a 21-9 season record – the question is, will winning 13 of their final 15 contests be enough to get the ’Cats into the NCAA West Regional?

Both teams were a little amped up in the opening minutes of Saturday’s conference tournament championship game, piling up several turnovers while producing precious little offense. With Chico State ahead 5-2, Humboldt State finally got untracked, scoring 10 unanswered points to go up by seven. The Wildcats responded with what turned out to be their best stretch of basketball all night, using a Natasha Smith 3-pointer and six points from Taylor Lydon to key a 17-4 run and put Chico State back in front, 22-16. The Wildcats were still ahead 27-24 went the offense went cold, going the final five minutes of the half without a field goal…meanwhile, the Lumberjacks reeled off nine straight points (highlighted by one of Andrea Bobic’s four 3-pointers in the period) to forge a six point advantage. A pair of Synchro Bull free throws to end the half sliced Humboldt State’s lead to 33-29 at intermission.

Humboldt State came out firing in the second half, and it seemed that every Lumberjack that heaved one up from behind the arc was finding nothing but net. Three-pointers by Luiza Osborne, Bree Halsey and two treys each from Bobic and Lisa Petty ignited a lightning-quick 24-4 Humboldt State run, and just five minutes into the period the ’Jacks were suddenly sporting a huge 57-33 lead. Chico State tried valiantly to rally back, but the offense just could not generate any consistency (the five Wildcat starters – Bull, Smith, Melissa Richardson, Pauline Ferrall and Christine Vest – were just 8-for-37 from the field the entire game)…in fact, only one Chico State player – Courtney Harrison – scored in the final 10:38 of the contest. The Wildcats could get no closer than 19 the rest of the way – Humboldt State scored eight of the game’s last 11 points to roll to the 85-55 victory and the CCAA Championship Tournament crown.

Harrison hit three 3-pointers and scored 15 points in 14 minutes off the bench to lead Chico State, while Smith recorded a 12-point night and was the lone Wildcat to be named to the CCAA All-Tournament team. Bobic, who earned Tournament MVP honors, led all scorers with 25 points, hitting 7-of-10 from 3-point range; Brittney Taylor, the CCAA’s leading scorer, had 23 points for the Lumberjacks, while Petty hit four treys for Humboldt State to finish with 14 points.

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