Box Score POMONA – Jay Flores, the Chico State men’s basketball team’s point guard and California Collegiate Athletic Association MVP during the Wildcats’ CCAA title run last season, joined Mike Baca of KPAY Radio during halftime of the Wildcats’ 89-76 loss at Cal Poly Pomona Saturday night. Flores, like many who follow the Wildcats, believe they have the talent to put a strong late-season surge together – they showed as much during a 20-11 run that nearly got them back into the game against the 5th-ranked Broncos – but they still haven’t settled comfortably into their new roles.
Amazingly, the Wildcats still have a chance to grab a top-four conference finish and first-round home playoff game. But with only eight games remaining, starting this weekend on the road at San Francisco State and Sonoma State, there’s no more time to lose.
The Wildcats have dropped four straight on the road and five of their last eight to fall to 10-8 overall and 7-7 in the CCAA. Still, they return home in a three-way tie for fourth with Cal State L.A. and hard-charging UC San Diego.
Thoughts of repeating as conference are now unreasonable. They trail Cal Poly Pomona (17-1 overall and 13-1 in the CCAA by six games with eight left). Cal State San Bernardino is in second place at 12-2. But the other two home playoff berths are very much in play. San Francisco State is in third at 9-5, followed by Chico State, Cal State L.A., and UC San Diego at 7-7. Cal State Dominguez Hills and Sonoma State are tied for seventh at 6-8.
A few more performances like the one Chico State got from Rashad Parker Saturday night would certainly help. Parker scored a career-high 30 points, the most by a Wildcat since Jon Baird torched Cal State East Bay for 30 back on Feb. 12, 2010, and tied for the fourth most by a Chico State player in Greg Clink’s five seasons at the helm. His eight 3-pointers (on 14 attempts) are the most by a Wildcat since Scott Land made eight against Hawaii-Hilo in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on March 11, 2005.
Amir Carraway added a season-high 20 points for the Wildcats. James Staniland finished with eight points and Sean Park seven.
Parker’s fifth trifecta of the first half left Chico State trailing just 30-25 with 2:20 left before halftime. But the Broncos used an 8-2 run over those final 140 seconds to take a 38-27 lead to the locker room.
Cal Poly Pomona continued the push by scoring the first eight points in the second half (a 16-2 run all told) and the Wildcats faced their largest deficit of the night, 46-27, with 16:17 left.
Over the next eight minutes Chico State got back into the game. Carraway, Staniland, Parker, Park and Sims all hit 3s as the Wildcats got the lead down to 62-54. But three turnovers over the next four minutes doomed any chance of a complete comeback.
