CHICO, Calif- Sophomore Steven Pratt scored a career-high 32 points on Friday night to lead Sonoma State to a come-from-behind 85-78 win over rival Chico State at Acker Gymnasium in Chico. The Seawolves trailed by 12 at the break and outscored the Wildcats by 19 in the second half to pick up their 17th win in their last 19 meetings with Chico. Sonoma improves to 9-15, 8-11 CCAA while Chico goes to 14-10, 10-9 CCAA.
The Seawolves (8-11) remain in eighth place in the CCAA standings, one game behind San Francisco State (9-10). Sonoma State has a two-game lead over Cal State Stanislaus (6-13), who they will play on Saturday night in Turlock. The top eight teams at the end of the regular season will advance to the CCAA Championship Tournament. There are three games remaining in the regular season.
Chico State came out like gangbusters on Friday night, scoring a season-high 52 first half points en route to a 12-point halftime advantage.
The second half would be decidedly different as Sonoma began to methodically chip away at the Wildcat lead, pulling even at the 9:43 mark when
Chad Chambers sank a free throw to complete a three-point play. The score would be tied three more times over the next minute and a half before the Seawolves started on an 8-0 run that would turn the game.
Trailing 79-71, the 'Cats made one last push when Jay Flores poured in five points in a nine-second span to cut the lead to three with 1:31 to go. Chico would get the ball back after a missed three-pointer by
Will Olsem and get to the line, but a pair of missed free throws sent the ball the other way and Pratt was able to nail a jumper to effectively put the comeback on ice.
For the game, the Seawolves would shoot 26-of-47 (55.3%) from the field and 30-of-36 (83.3%) from the charity stripe. After their hot first half, Chico would finish at just 38.8% for the contest- 22.2% in the second.
Pratt's 32 points came on 9-of-12 shooting from the field and 14-of-17 from the free throw line. He crushed his previous career-high of 24, set this February against San Francisco State.
Olsem finished with 19 and both
Sterling Arterberry and
Kyle Shandera posted ten.
Zach Graves and Damario Sims each scored 16 to lead the Wildcats.
Fans interested in watching a replay of this game can catch it tomorrow evening at 9:00 pm on Comcast Hometown Network (Channel 104) in the Bay Area.
Box Score: Sonoma State 85, Chico State 78