2008 Woodie Awards
Men's basketball team tops in CCAA
Matt Macaulay, Sports Editor
Issue date: 2/1/06 Section: Sports
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Led by the lights-out shooting of senior guard Vince Inglima, the Seawolves have climbed to the top of the CCAA with an 8-0 conference record and into the #4 spot in the NCAA West Regional rankings with an overall record of 10-4.
Being ranked in the top eight in the West rankings at the end of the regular season brings with it an automatic birth into the West Regional tournament and a chance to play for the NCAA Division II National Championship, the team's ultimate goal.
The only loss in the current streak came on a last-second 3-pointer against UC Santa Barbara making the score 66-67 as time expired. As heartbreaking a loss as that game could have been, the team pulled it together and went on to win their next six in a row, including a game in which the Seawolves won 82-81 with a 3-pointer of their own in the final seconds against Cal State Stanislaus.
With only 16 seconds left to play, Inglima drained the shot that put the Seawolves up by 1 point and sealed the victory. But with a team-first attitude characteristic of head coach Pat Fuscaldo, Inglima doesn't want to dwell on individual accomplishment.
"The real story of the game was that we were down by 13 and we played great defense down the stretch," said Inglima.
Of the last six games the team has won, five have come on the road, including four in a row in just an eight-day stretch.
"People don't understand how hard it is to travel. It's not fun," said Fuscaldo. "We probably traveled 1100 to 1200 miles to play four games."
The Seawolves have gelled as a team since losing their first six games, including three exhibition games with Division I schools before the start of the season. The team could have folded after those losses according to Fuscaldo, but after losing to Saint Martin's on Nov. 26, the Seawolves have done nothing but get better and better as a unit and are now displaying the confidence characteristic of a first-place team.
"We've known we were capable of playing this well all season long," said Inglima.
Fuscaldo is quick to note that though he knows his team is playing well, he tries not to get caught up in the specific statistics his players are achieving.
Led by Inglima, the Seawolves are shooting 51% from the field and 45.5% from beyond the 3-point line to lead the CCAA. The team is also tops in the conference in free throw percentage at more than 75%.
Inglima has been named the Wilson CCAA Player of the Week the last two weeks in a row after shooting more than 70% from the field and scoring a total of 104 points during that stretch.
Even with the surge of Inglima into the spotlight, the solid play of junior forward J.T. Tipton hasn't gone unnoticed. Tipton is averaging nearly a double double through the first 14 games of the season with 14.8 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game. He has led the team in points scored four times and leads the team in free-throw attempts where he averaging 81% from the line.
Senior point guard Kevin Christensen, whose leadership is vital to the team's success according to Fuscaldo, leads the team in assists with 4.3 per game.