ARCATA, Calif. – The Humboldt State men's basketball team showed no shortage of fight in Lumberjack Arena on Saturday night, facing off against seventh-ranked Chico State, picked to be top team in the CCAA preseason poll. The Jacks, however, couldn't pull off a large comeback effort in the 77-67 loss.
"They did a good job creating their tempo, and their ability to stay comfortable," said Lumberjack Head Coach Steve Kinder. "That was the key to the game. We weren't able to get in our up tempo atmosphere and get things going and get this place rocking, which it would have at times. They're big, they're long, and they're a seasoned team. They're the real deal; I thought we did a nice job rebounding in the second half, showing a little more toughness, but the bottom line is to be able to compete for those 50/50 balls, whether it's a loose ball on the floor, taking a charge, or diving out-of-bounds for a save. Those are very important in a game like this and they can make it go either way."
After limiting HSU's offense to 26 points in the first half, the Wildcats saw their lead grow to as many as 19 points at 49-30 at the 14:44 mark of the second half before the Jacks mounted their comeback attempt.
"You have to credit their defense," said Kinder. "They were solid. They didn't foul. They were certainly blocking out that first half and didn't give us second opportunities. And when we're not scoring, we're not able to set up our press, we can't get steals, and we can't get the game going up-and-down."
Tyras Rattler Jr. led HSU with 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field while Justin Everett was a perfect 5-for-5 on field goals en route to 12 points. Jalen Terry also canned 4-of-5 from distance, three in the game's waning moments, as he contributed 12 points. Davasyia Hagger notched 12 rebounds.
Notable was Chico's ability to consistently get to the free throw line, as their 26 attempts nearly tripled that of HSU.
"Coming out, turning the ball over, and taking bad shots allowed them to get fast-breaks and easy buckets," said Rattler, "That and them getting stops was what happened early in the second half."
Rattler said that in addition to wanting to beat Chico on the boards, the idea for the game was to get defensive stops and push the ball and get into their offense, which proved difficult to implement.
Regarding this being the Jacks' introduction to CCAA play, Kinder said, "That was a taste of reality. They're a well-coached basketball team, they've got great student-athletes that have the ability to redshirt with an athletic program there that funds that, and obviously they're hitting on all cylinders. So hats off to them; we learn from that as a basketball program and we go back to the drawing board on Monday. We talked postgame about how hard we're going to come back and what a marathon the basketball season is and to lose by ten points against a very good basketball team knowing that there were a lot of 50/50 balls we could've got starts in the practice session by going hard in every drill and every scrimmage we have."
The Lumberjacks host Simpson on Tuesday at 7 p.m. before returning to conference play at Cal State San Bernardino next Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
