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Toros to Play for CCAA Tournament Title After Stunning 64-52 Comeback Win Over Chico State

Title game against No. 18 Cal Poly Pomona set for 7:30 pm on Saturday

Monay Lee's 21 points helps lead the Toros to tomorrow's CCAA Title Game
Box Score

ONTARIO -- Down by 15 with 14:11 left in the game, No. 3 seed Cal State Dominguez Hills out-scored No. 2 seed Chico State by 27 points to take a stunning 64-52 win over the Wildcats for the right to play for the CCAA Tournament Title tomorrow night against top-seeded Cal Poly Pomona at 7:30 pm.

"I'm so proud of this team for their resiliency," begins head coach Molly Goodenbour.  "Our fatigue showed a little bit at the start and we weren't doing the things we talked about needing to do to be competitive.

"Then they changed their defensive mindset and Talia Rayford and Shomari McCorkle came up huge again defensively and limited who we needed to limit."

Monay Lee led all scorers with 21 points that included a perfect 6-of-6 from the foul line to lead CSUDH to its third-straight win in improving to 19-9 overall.

Here's the postgame press conference featuring Goodenbour, Breanne Garcia and Monay Lee:


Unlike last night's first round game when the Toros jumped all over Cal State East Bay, it was Chico State's fresh legs that pushed the higher seed to the game's first four points, a 23-15 lead twelve minutes in, and to 29-15 with 4:13 left in the half en route to a 10-point cushion at 31-21 heading into the break.

Two quick Wildcats to start the second half gave Chico State another 14-point lead, one they increased to 15 at 41-26 after a Jasmine Miller free throw with 14:11 left in the game.

That's when the championship heart of the Toros showed up, led by who else but Tayler Champion who began the rally with a jumper to spur CSUDH's charge.

"We talked again about leaving everything on the floor, and once we tighted up our defense, we got better opportunities on the offensive end in the second half and they were looking for each other better and sharing the ball better."

An old-fashioned three-point play by Lee cut the Toro deficit to 10, with a Talia Rayford bucket and triple by Breanne Garcia getting CSUDH to 41-36 two minutes later.

Chico State finally ended its drought and pushed its lead to 47-40 with 9:05 left in regulation, but the Toros' press continued to cause havoc on the Wildcat guards as CSUDH took its first lead of the game, and the lead for good after a Shomari McCorkle bucket with 4:27 remaining.

A 3-point dagger by Champion a minute later puncutated the comeback with clutch free throw shooting down the stretch pushing the Toros to tomorrow's CCAA Title game.

Garcia added 15 in the win, with Amber Wharton's eight and seven each by Champion and Rayford giving CSUDH the push it needed tonight.

CSUDH shot 34.4% from the field but made up for it at the line to the tune of 17 makes in 21 attempts.  CSUC, meanwhile, was just 8 of 14 from the charity stripe while making 33.9% of its field goal attempts.

Against the regular season champion Broncos, an automatic bid is on the line as well as the CCAA Tournament title, with the Toros looking to something they couldn't do during the regular season against the top team in the league: win.

The Toros dropped both regular season contests against the CCAA regular season champion Broncos as they shot just 28.2% from the floor in being outscored by 30.

"CPP presents a lot of match-up probems for us," says Goodenbour.  "Blackwell is a monster inside and they have very experienced guard play.  But we're just going to come out and leave everything on the floor again, and see what we can do."

In this, its 11th CCAA Tournament appearance, CSUDH will be aiming for its fourth CCAA Title, the last coming in 2008-09.






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