CHICO – The Cal State Dominguez Hills women's basketball team tried to find the game-winning bucket with five seconds left, but came up short and no foul was called as Chico State sneaked by the Toros in the end 65-64 at Acker Gymnasium Thursday evening.
 
After a controversial turnover against the Toros handed the ball back to the Wildcats with 18.1 seconds left, Chico responded following a timeout with what was the eventual game-winning layup with 9.8 seconds left. The Toros charged across the floor with time against them and made numerous attempts to get the layup in a crowded paint but to no success.
 
Although the Toros (12-11, 10-8 CCAA) know their ticket to Arcata for the CCAA Tournament next week is punched, the loss did hurt them slightly in the standings. The Wildcats (13-9, 10-7 CCAA) leap over the Toros for the fourth seed to the tournament. It is likely the two ballclubs will see each other at Lumberjack Arena in the quarterfinal round Thursday. The seeds will not be finalized until the regular season concludes Saturday night. The Toros wrap up at Stanislaus State at 5:30 p.m.
 
Danyell Booker came off the bench and scored 14 points and came up just one rebound shy from a double-double. Starter Dawnyel Lair contributed to 13 points and Dawson Bell added 10 as a substitution.
 
The Wildcats saw three of their starters combine for 39 of their points with Charity Gallegos leading the effort with 18. Haley Ison had 11 points but dominated the boards, grabbing 21 of Chico's 40 rebounds.
 
The Wildcats hit 44.3 percent of their shots while the Toros averaged 34.4 percent.
 
Neither side had led by more than six points in the entire game. Both sides tied the opening quarter 10-10 and then went into halftime even at 28.