Central Michigan vs Cal State-Bakersfield, Midnight Eastern, flohoops.com
This year marks the final ever Great Alaska Shootout, once one of the top early season tournaments, but in recent years relegated to hosting mostly mid-major and smaller conference schools. At midnight eastern tonight, Central Michigan and Cal State-Bakersfield will battle it out for the final ever Championship of this event. It is sad to see the Shootout coming to an end, but we are looking forward to one more great day of hoops in Anchorage today.
Central Michigan enters today’s game at 4-1 overall, with the Chippewas lone loss coming in a close one at Michigan. They defeated Sam Houston State and Cal Poly to reach the title game. Shawn Roundtree scored 20 points in the quarterfinal win, while Kevin McKay came off the bench to score 19 in yesterday’s victory. Cal State-Bakersfield is 4-2 on the year including a road win over Lamar and wins in this event against the host, Alaska-Anchorage, and a tough Idaho team. The Roadrunners led most of the game against Idaho until the Vandals got hot late and took the lead. Justin Davis, coming off the bench, then nailed the game-winning three pointer, after Idaho had missed the front end of a one-and-one, with 2 seconds left to give Bakersfield the thrilling 64-62 win.
One final note about the Shootout. Yesterday, host Alaska-Anchorage picked up a win over Santa Clara in overtime (thanks in part to a buzzer beating three at the end of regulation), quite possibly the school’s last ever win in the event, though they do play College of Charleston in the Fifth Place game today. However, congratulations must go out to the Seawolves’ women’s team who cut down the nets as the champion of the four team women’s field after beating Tulsa 59-53 on Thursday.