CCSF ADVANCES TO SUNDAY’S CCCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL TITLE GAME WITH 86-71 WIN OVER CHAFFEY

LIVERMORE -- Zack Copeland had 22 points as Northern California top seeded City College of San Francisco advanced to Sunday's California Community College Athletic Association Men's Basketball championship game with an 86-71 victory over Chaffey College Saturday evening at Las Positas College.

The Rams (31-1) will play at 3:30 p.m. Sunday against the winner of other semifinal between defending state champion and top-ranked Saddleback College and No. 6 Fresno City College.

State second-ranked San Francisco will be seeking its first title since 2011 and second overall, having also won in 1962. It is CCSF's eighth time in the finals.

Fifth-ranked Chaffey (25-7), the No. 3 seed from Southern California, kept it close in the first half until a  lay-up by Jalen Canty gave CCSF the lead for good at 36-34 with 1:11 remaining before the break. Copeland had ten first half points, including a 3-pointer at the end of the period for a 39-34 Rams advantage.

San Francisco started the second half on a 9-4 run to take a 10-point lead with 15:46 remaining and continued to extend the margin. Largest lead was 19 points at 68-49 with 7:50 left.

Jerrod Nodar had four 3-points play during that second half barrage, and finished with 20 points, including five 3-pointers.

"He's been doing that all year," said CCSF coach Justin Labagh. "We want a couple threes from him a game. Today he gave us five, so we're very fortunate for that."

Shon Briggs also broke the 20-point mark with 21. Jalen Canty had 12 rebound and ten points.

"I thought we did a good job," said Justin Labagh. "We fouled 'em in the first half and we didn't play that well, but we came back in the second half and eliminated all the fouls -- and it became a 10-point game."

Chaffey's Brian Beard was the game's top scorer with 24 points and also had eight rebounds. Christopher Edward had 15 points and ten rebounds.

"We wanted to take No. 2 (Victor Joseph) and No. 20 (Alfred Brown) out of the game," said Labagh. "Those were their leading scorers, so we kind of stuck on them." Joseph scored 11 points and Brown had four.

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