The Cal Poly Humboldt men’s basketball lived to see another day after a convincing 70-52 win over Cal Poly Pomona in the first round of the CCAA Tournament in San Marcos on Thursday.

Humboldt needed to have a strong showing in the quarterfinal matchup against a Pomona team that the ‘Jacks went 1-1 against in the regular season and Humboldt did just that. Pomona started the second half on a 10-0 run, but the ‘Jacks punched back and ended the game on a 32-16 run to advance into the semifinals.

“I’m really excited for our guys. They had me worried there to start the second half,” Humboldt head coach Chris Tifft said. “Our guys just settled down and found their rhythm and were able to pull away.”

The game began with junior Kalib LaCount and sophomore Rob Diaz III scoring the first 12 points of the game for the ‘Jacks. The first half was a back-and-forth affair until the final minutes. Humboldt closed out the half on a 10-0 run to take a 38-26 lead into halftime.

Pomona had their run to begin the second half but Humboldt was able to weather the storm and end the run with a jumper by freshman forward Josiah Sanders. That started another 10-0 run for Humboldt that took the wind out of the sails for Pomona’s comeback attempt.

“It was a big hit for Josiah; it was a big hit for us,” Tifft said of the run-stopping bucket. “Josiah took a tough shot and he hit it and it kind of took the pressure off of everybody a little bit.”

Diaz led the ‘Jacks with 24 points in his conference tournament debut and freshman forward Marsai Mason was a game-changer on both ends, scoring 18 points on 8-11 shooting while grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking two shots. Mason may have some added motivation after he was snubbed entirely from the All-CCAA conference teams earlier this week despite the fact that he had the most blocks in CCAA conference play and was a Top-10 rebounder.

“Marsai and I had a conversation on Tuesday about that,” Tifft said of Mason not garnering any CCAA awards. “The message to him was ‘just go down to the tournament and prove to everyone that they made a mistake,’ and he did that today. 18 and 10 as a true freshman is really special and just physically dominated the game on both ends of the floor.”

It was a good day for Humboldt’s offensive efficiency, shooting 49% from the field, 38% from three and didn’t miss a single free throw but it was the ‘Jacks defense that sealed the win on Thursday. They held Pomona to 32% shooting from the field while they made just three of their 14 three-point attempts and turned the ball over 13 times.

“We have the ability to be a very good defensive team. We have been a much better defensive team over our last 10-12 games than we were earlier in the season,” Tifft said. “If we were able to not give them angles, not foul them, not leave our feet on defense, then it’d be hard for them to score and make baskets consistently and that’s what happened.”

The ‘Jacks will have less than 24 hours to prepare for their semifinal matchup against the top-seeded Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros on Friday afternoon. (Scores were not available at the Times-Standard publishing deadline.) Dominguez Hills is currently 23-5 on the season but one of those five losses came against the ‘Jacks in Arcata where Humboldt came back and got a 90-80 win.

“They got good pieces. They got good point guard play, they got good big guys. They’re a much, much older team than we are,” Tifft said of Dominguez Hills. “Talent-wise, matchup-wise, we’ve proven we’re right there with them. We’re just going to have to play with some poise.”

Dominguez Hills beat the ‘Jacks 70-65 last month in a game where Humboldt’s offense struggled. The Toros will certainly go into the semifinal game with the rest advantage, having not played since Saturday while the ‘Jacks will be playing in their second-straight late afternoon game.

“They have a lot of confidence right now,” Tifft said of his team. “As a coach, that’s just special to see. Anytime you have your program in that place, you just don’t want the season to end.”

Dylan McNeill can be reached at 707-441-0526.