CHICO — The last time these two teams met, it was an overtime thriller. Wednesday night's travel-partner match-up in Chico, however, was pretty much controlled by the home team.
Renee Goldoff had 22 points and nine rebounds as the Chico State Wildcats put together one of their best all-around nights this season to beat Cal State Stanislaus, 68-54. Chico State improved to 15-11 overall and 11-8 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association while the Warriors dropped to 13-13 and 8-11.
Cal State Stanislaus has one more game left -- Friday night at home against No. 9 UC San Diego -- before the conference championship tournament.
Lysandra Williams led Cal State Stanislaus with 20 points and
Katie Busi had 12 points and 11 rebounds for her eighth double-double this season. Busi also scored in double figures for the 20th time this season in 26 games. It was Williams' third 20-point game.
Chico State was red-hot in the game rolling off to a 37-21 halftime lead shooting nearly 50 percent for most of the game. Mean while, the Warriors struggled offensively, hitting just 25 percent of their shots for most of the game before finishing 19-for-63 for the night (30.2 percent).
The Wildcats also got 16 points from Natasha Smith and 11 from Melissa Richardson, who nailed three three-pointers. Smtih also had eight rebounds.
After Chico State led by as many as 21 points early in the second half after a Richardson triple, the Warriors made a run and came within 13, at 55-42, on a Busi layup. That spur caused Chico to take a timeout to regroup and after the break, the Wildcats rolled again for the win.
The last time the teams met they played to an overtime thriller at Warrior Arena with Chico State escaping with a 77-75 win on Jan. 21.
The Warriors will finish off the regular season finale Friday night before finding out its tournament seed and travel destination for next Tuesday's opening round game of the conference tournament. The top eight teams in the CCAA advance to the conference postseason event with the top four teams hosting a first-round game on campus on Tuesday, March 3.
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