The Chico State Wildcats were three points shy of the century mark in a 97-61 win over the Stanislaus State Warriors Thursday night.
The Wildcats returned to the Acker Gymnasium coming off a big win last week against the No. 22 Cal Poly Pomona Broncos. Looking to carry over that momentum, the Wildcats came out of the gates firing.
Senior guard Makenzi Laporte was scorching hot in the first quarter, knocking down five of her first six shots and putting up 12 points in the first quarter. Laporte finished the game with a career-high 26 points, shooting 10-13 from the field and a perfect 3-3 from behind the arch.
“Anyone can go off any night, and we shared the ball great tonight, so it’s just teammates being able to find me, and I just happened to be in good places tonight,” Laporte said.
The Wildcats mounted a 30-18 lead over the Warriors at the end of the first quarter and never looked back. As the game was coming to a close, the Wildcats were sitting at 97 points with a minute and a half left to play. The entire gym was cheering them on to reach 100 points for the second time this season. But after a couple of missed three-point attempts, Chico took the honorable route of dribbling the clock out for the win.
Senior forward Meadow Aragon was one rebound shy of a first-half double-double but again looked like an unstoppable force, recording 16 points and 13 rebounds.
“She’s a freaking beast,” Laporte said. “We know what she’s going to give us each night, and that’s her hardest.”
That marks Aragon’s eighth double-double of conference play, hitting that benchmark in over half the conference games she’s played this season.
“I don’t give it [recording double-doubles] much consideration, but it’s just something that happens,” Aragon said. “My team relies on me to get rebounds and score, and if I end up getting a double-double, that’s great.”
Chico State’s bench also had some big performances of their own, with senior forward Ashleigh Barr recording her first career double-double with 10 points and 10 boards. Sophomore guard Kaila Woo set a plethora of season-highs today with 12 points on five made shots, two being from three.
With the win, the Wildcats improved to 15-4 (10-3 CCAA) on the year and remain in sole possession of third place in the CCAA standings.
The Wildcats will return to Acker on Saturday for a rematch against Cal State Monterey Bay at 1 p.m.
Home games are free to attend for students who present their student ID or Canvas home page.
For information about all Chico State athletics or to keep up with the game live, visit the Wildcat home page, or watch through FloSports.
Lukas Mann can be reached at [email protected].
