CCAA Basketball Selected for NCAA Showcase Doubleheader
CALIFORNIA - For the second-straight season, the CCAA will be featured on ESPN3, as Cal Poly Pomona hosts San Francisco State for a basketball doubleheader on Saturday, Jan. 26.
NCAA Division II announced 24 regular-season men's and women's basketball games that will be highlighted in January and February on ESPN3 or NCAA social media as part of a new media agreement intended to promote the division on several platforms throughout the academic year. An additional four flex doubleheaders will be finalized in February, and the games are expected to highlight premier and pivotal matchups toward the end of the season.
"The opportunity to be featured as part of the NCAA Division II media agreement package with ESPN is very exciting for our student-athletes, the competing institutions and the CCAA," noted Cal Poly Pomona Director of Athletics Brian Swanson. "We welcome the ability to showcase our outstanding student-athletes and continue to build brand awareness for Cal Poly Pomona, San Francisco State and the conference on a national level, and I want to thank ESPN and the NCAA for selecting us."
"San Francisco State Athletics is very honored to be a part of this showcase," added Gators Director of Athletics Stephanie Shrieve-Hawkins. "Both teams are playing extremely well, and should represent our CCAA conference and NCAA Division II basketball proudly!"
With a 1:05 p.m. tip off, the Broncos and Gators women will open the day from Kellogg Arena. Sitting at 10-2 on the season and in 2nd place in the CCAA, Cal Poly Pomona is coming off wins in each of their last three contests, reigning victorious in nine of the last 10 games. The Broncos look to continue their momentum as they host Cal State East Bay on Thursday, followed by a date with Cal State Monterey Bay Saturday.
In the season's first meeting between the two, the Broncos eased to a 94-64 victory in Smith's CCAA debut. Five Cal Poly Pomona players reached double-digit scoring, paced by 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting off the bench for Monica Todd. The Broncos shot 55.7 percent from the field with 49 points in the paint and outrebounded San Francisco State by a margin of 44 to 26 in the contest.
However, since that time, the Gators are 5-2 including a five-game winning streak, the longest string of victories since the 2009-10 season. Under the direction of first-year coach Natasha Smith, San Francisco State sports a 7-7 overall record including a 6-3 mark in league action. Smith's team is presently sitting at fourth in the CCAA standings, and should the Gators be one of the eight teams to make the postseason field, it would be for the first time since 2012-13. San Francisco State takes on Sonoma State Saturday in their lone game of the weekend.
Immediately following the women's matchup at 3:05 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26, the Broncos and Gators men tussle on the hardwood of Kellogg Arena, setting up a rematch of a 2017-18 CCAA Tournament Semifinal game contested on the same court.
The Broncos, who fell out of the national rankings for the first time this season, are looking to halt a three-game slide on Thursday against 2018-19 upstart Cal State East Bay. Cal Poly Pomona (5-4, 3-4 CCAA) still one of the stingiest defenses in NCAA Division II, succumbed to the trio by a combined 12 points.
The Gators enter the weekend with an overall mark of 9-5, and 5-4 in CCAA action. Taking on Sonoma State on Saturday in their lone game of the week, San Francisco State is looking to use a second-half surge to victory at Cal State LA in their last game out as a catapult to cap off a three-game road swing.
Considering the nature of the final two meetings between the two squads, plan your viewing to go a little long.
In the last meeting between the two teams, Cal Poly Pomona edged San Francisco State on the road in overtime, coming away from The Swamp with a 75-71 victory. Both teams were helped by second-half runs, with the Gators getting a 16-5 scoring stretch to jump out to a nine-point lead with 11 minutes to play. The Broncos answered with a 14-0 run of their own to again reclaim the lead, before finding themselves down by four with six seconds remaining in regulation. A pair of free throws from William Christmas was followed by Riley Schaeffer's layup with 2.4 seconds on the clock to send the game in overtime where the Broncos eventually prevailed.
In the CCAA Semifinal game on March 2, 2018, the Broncos also came out on top in an overtime classic. Cal Poly Pomona, who entered as the top seed in the brackets, was able to force three turnovers in the last minute of regulation as Christmas was again key, this time scoring a fast break layup with 23 seconds to play to force the extra period. In the final five it was all Broncos, as the hosts outscored San Francisco State 9-2 in the extra frame.
"We are very excited that Cal Poly Pomona and San Francisco State are going to be featured on ESPN3," remarked CCAA commissioner Mitch Cox. "To get this sort of national exposure for our programs is outstanding, and I'm sure our student-athletes are going to find this a great experience. We have so many good teams and so many great doubleheaders throughout the conference, but we felt this was a good representation of both the north and south in our state, and we are pleased that these games were selected as part of the NCAA Division II Showcase."
This marks the third time in the last four seasons that the CCAA has been highlighted in an ESPN basketball doubleheader: Cal Poly Pomona played at Chico State on Feb. 19, 2016, and just last year, Humboldt State hosted Chico State on Nov. 18, 2017, to kick off the Showcase slate.
"We are excited for the second half of the basketball season and look forward to featuring the accomplishments of Division II basketball student-athletes on ESPN3 and in the division's hybrid model," said Terri Steeb Gronau, vice president of Division II. "Fans will continue to watch talented student-athletes who make a difference in the classroom and in their communities."
The current schedule, which spans December through February, features 14 of the 24 basketball-sponsoring conferences in Division II and is created from a pool of conference nominations.
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