2016-17 CCAA Men's Basketball Championship Central
ROHNERT PARK — After concluding the regular season against one another, and looking for redemption with their home crowd behind them, two Sonoma State men's basketball players scored in double-figures to help lead the team to a 63-56 victory against Cal Poly Pomona in the opening round of the CCAA Championship Tournament on Tuesday night in The Wolves' Den. With the win, SSU improves to 20-7 on the year and will take on SF State in the semifinals on Friday March 3rd in San Marcos. Meanwhile, the Broncos' season comes to a close with a record of 12-13.
Meeting for the second time in four days, Sonoma was looking to get off to a much better start out the gate this time around. From the very beginning of the contest one could tell it was going to be a grind throughout the duration of the game with both teams unable to pull away early on. Neither team was able to find any separation until
Ronnie Harris split a pair of free throws with 10:29 left in the half, putting the Seawolves up 18-13, which was their largest lead of the game at the time. After going up 20-16 with eight minutes to go before halftime, Sonoma suddenly went cold and went without a made shot for four minutes. Luckily the defense was able to hold CPP to only four points in that time span.
With the score knotted up at 20, a
Jimmy Golden three, followed by a steal by
Brian Johnson and a fast break layup by
Khalid Johnson ignited a 7-0 run for Sonoma and a 27-20 lead with 3:16 remaining. A couple of possessions later,
Jackson Gion hit threes on back-to-back possessions, putting the Seawolves up nine, before heading into halftime with a 33-26 lead. Sonoma shot the ball really well in the first half, going 9 for 19 from the floor (47.7 percent) and were especially dialed in from distance, going 5-9 (55.6 percent) out of the gate. The nation's number one ranked defense also held CPP to 8 for 24 shooting (33.3 percent) and 2 of 11 from three-point range.
Sonoma struggled to get into a rhythm upon returning from the break, being held scoreless for the first five and a half minutes, until Golden made a three pointer to increase the lead to 36-31. Still trying to find a rhythm, SSU eventually fell behind 37-38 with 11:23 left in the contest. Looking for a spark plug, the Seawolves turned to
Isaac Davidson, a freshman from Auckland, New Zealand, off the bench and immediately he started a rally. Moments after checking in, he made a floater from the free throw line, which was the start of a 9-0 run and suddenly Sonoma was up by eight, leading 46-38 with 8:44 to go.
The Seawolves seemed to be sitting on a comfortable 57-48 lead with 3:24 left in the game, but any basketball fan knows that three minutes is an eternity, especially down the stretch. The Broncos managed to rally back and cut the deficit down to 59-56 with 1:23 remaining after a few made baskets by Jordan Ogundiran and their ability to force turnovers because of immense defensive pressure. The score would hold up at 59-56 until about three seconds left in the game, when tempers began to flare. After Ogundiran missed a layup,
Armani Nicolis grabbed the rebound, which was quickly followed by an intentional foul. After Nicolis was fouled by Ogundiran, Ogundiran was hit with a double technical, resulting in his ejection from the game. Harris sank all four of the technical free throws and the Seawolves won the contest by a score of 63-56.
Golden led the way with 13 points on 4 of 8 shooting and Harris followed with 10 points on 2 of 3 shooting. As a team, SSU shot 45.9 percent overall, going 17 for 37 from the floor and hit 50 percent of their three pointers, going 8 for 16. They also connected on 21 of their 27 free throws. The defense held CPP to 38.3 percent shooting on 18 of 47 overall and 27.3 percent on 6 of 22 shooting from three-point range.
The Seawolves will now head to the Sports Center in San Marcos for the CCAA semifinals where they will take on the Gators of San Francisco State on Friday March 4th at 8:05 PM.
