The Chico State men’s basketball team defeated the UC Merced Bobcats 69-50 in its conference opening game on Thursday in Acker Gym.
After the Bobcats scored the first points of the game, Wildcats’ senior guard Max Walters sank a three-pointer putting the ‘Cats in the lead. The ‘Cats held the lead for the remainder of the game, consistently dominating their opponents.
“The goal was to be selfless,” junior guard Ned Joyce said. “Our approach the entire week was to move the ball, make sure everybody touches the ball to create opportunities for us to score.”
The ball movement was impressively effective, however senior guard Chris Holley stood out, as he collected four of the 12 ‘Cats assists.
Holley also scored 15 points and collected four rebounds, leading the ‘Cats on the court in their dominant win.
“We really have been putting all our trust in our coaches,” Holley said. “We did a good job creating gaps and spacing, which is what we have been working on in practice. We all got to our spots and opened up lanes for me to drive to the hoop.”
The ‘Cats offense was solid, ending with a field goal percentage of 40.7, a three point percentage of 26.7 and shot a consistent 81.3% from the free throw line.
Offense isn’t the only reason why the ‘Cats earned their win, their defense also played a huge part in their victory.
“We spent a lot of time this week practicing defense, just having our energy and effort up the best we could,” Holley said. “We gotta treat every game like it’s the championship game, that means coming out and playing our best defense consistently for the whole game.”
After struggling in their two previous games, the ‘Cats are hyped up after earning their first conference win.
“It feels great especially after two tough losses, we definitely needed this tonight,” Joyce said. “Our approach tonight was much different than those other two games, it worked out great and it just feels great getting a conference win out of the gate. We got really talented guys, if we can stay together and keep improving our defense, we can really start to do great things.”
The ‘Cats play again at home on Saturday at 3 p.m. against Stanislaus State. Acker Gym grants free entry with a Chico State student ID card or a student’s 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.
Aiyana Curry can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].
