After falling behind by eight points late in the first half, seventh-ranked Seattle University outscored Chico State 37-9 over an 11-minute span to open a sizable lead and cruise to the 95-74 victory Friday evening at the DeBeni Holiday Classic held in Humboldt State’s East Gym.
Michael Knight (, ) scored 11 of Seattle’s first 19 points to give his team an early six-point lead, but Chico State came back, scoring 11 unanswered points to take a 37-29 advantage with 4:21 remaining in the first half. Two more three-point shots from Knight and a traditional three-point play from Michael Wright () gave SeattleU the lead for good, as the Redhawks scored the final 11 points of the first half to take a 40-37 halftime lead.
(3-5) came within one early in the second half, but SeattleU pulled away, thanks in part to Ricky Berry (), who scored all 13 of his points in the second half as SeattleU went on a 21-5 run to expand its lead to 63-46. The Wildcats would only get as close as 12 points behind the rest of the way.
Knight finished the game with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, including 5-of-8 from behind the three-point line. Mike Boxley (, ) also scored 13 points, hitting 9-of-11 shots from the free throw line, while Ryan Coldren (, ) scored 12 points and Chris Gweth () contributed 11 points off the bench.
Shaun Burl () had a solid all-around game, hitting all of his shot attempts to score eight points, plus he pulled down four rebounds and dished out six assists. Boxley, Coldren, and Leigh Swanson () each grabbed five rebounds, and Wright added seven points, four rebounds, two assists, and three steals to the winning effort.
As a team, shot 58.8 percent (30-of-51) from the field, including 10-of-20 from the three-point line, and 89.3 percent (25-of-28) from the free throw line. Darroll Phillips led with 21 points, including four three-pointers, and five assists, while Frank Igbekoyi scored 19 points and Mike Martin earned 17 points for the Wildcats.
(6-0) will have about 24 hours to prepare for its toughest challenge to date, facing tournament host in the final game of the DeBeni Holiday Classic tomorrow, Dec. 22, beginning at approximately 7:30 p.m. The game, a rematch of the season opener won by SeattleU, will be broadcast on 1150 AM KKNW as well as on the Internet through 1150kknw.com and GoSeattleU.com.