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Steve Brandon

Women's Basketball

Toros Crowned CCAA Tournament Champions!

Box Score

ONTARIO -- No. 3 seeded Cal State Dominguez Hills completed its CCAA Tournament journey with a 65-61 win over top-seeded Cal Poly Pomona, led by CCAA Tournament MVP Monay Lee's 11 points and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe.

With the CCAA Championship, the Toros receive the CCAA's automatic bid into next week's NCAA West Regional, with the entire eight-team bracket to be announced tomorrow night at 7 pm on NCAA.com.

This is CSUDH's fourth CCAA Championship and first since the 2008-09 season, and will be the Toros' sixth-ever berth into the NCAA regional as they improve to 20-9 on the year, reaching the 20-win plateau for the first time since the 08-09 squad went 21-10.

The Broncos, meanwhile, still remain a lock for an at-large berth, and could still host the regional.

Here's the postgame interview with head coach Goodenbour, Shomari McCorkle and Amber Wharton:


Here are the final seconds before the celebration begins:



And the CCAA Tournament Champions donning their CCAA Championship t-shirts:



The CCAA regular season champion Broncos took an early 10-6 edge behind six Ariel Marsh points, before a Tayler Champion three-pointer gave CSUDH its first lead of the game with 12:32 left in the period.

The Toros took a hit after Monay Lee picked up her second foul of the game 29 seconds later, sending her to the bench.

Cal Poly Pomona capitalized on Lee's absence by regaining the lead at 19-14 on an Ashley Lovett bucket with 10:06 left in the half as the Broncos kept their lead the duration of the period, entering the locker room with a 32-30 lead after a Champion bucket in the paint with 29 ticks left.

After the break, Jada Blackwell pushed CPP's lead to six at 36-30 at the 19:03 mark, where it hovered over the next three-plus minutes.

Down 42-38, a Talia Rayford basket brought CSUDH to within two, and a Shomari McCorkle rebound after a CPP missed set the table for Kielyn Wilson, who's jumper from the baseline tickled the twine to tie the game at 42-42.

With both Lee and Breanne Garcia playing with three fouls, CPP took a hit when Blackwell picked up her fourth foul going over the back on a rebound attempt.

Lee made the Broncos pay on CSUDH's next possession, beating the shot clock with a 15 footer, which was followed by an Amber Wharton steal and ensuing triple by Simone Thompson to put the Toros up by five with 12:05 left in regulation.

Lee pickd up her fourth foul at the 10:36 mark, with a Toro foul setting up a pair of CPP made free throws 34 seconds later, with an old-fashioned 3-point play by Tyler Woods following to cut CSUDH's lead to 49-48 with 9:28 left.

With the Toros leading 56-50, Garcia stripped the ball from Woods but was fouled by Woods on a breakaway, resulting in a Flagrant 2 and an ejection.

Garcia drained both freebies and once the Toros took the ball out of bounds, a Lee up and under put the Toros on top by 10 at 60-50 with 4:40 left in the game.

CPP went on a 9-2 run over the next three minutes to close the gap to 62-59, but would get no closer after solid free throw shooting down the stretch.

The Toros shot 40.7% from the floor in the win but just 25% from behind the arc, while CPP drained 46.7% of its field goal attempts and just 20% from downtown, with the Broncos pulling down four more rebounds but turning the ball over four more times in the title game.

CSUDH's quick hands made a huge difference with seven steals compared to two for CPP, with McCorke and Wharton each with two swipes.

Champion and Garcia also were named to the All-CCAA Tournament squad.

The win was extra sweet for head coach Molly Goodenbour, who becomes the first coach in the history of the CCAA to win CCAA titles with two different CCAA schools (Chico State).


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