Before season 65 started we discussed starting a CCAA vs. Gulf South Challenge and all coaches who replied were interested in doing it, so I'm going to set it up.  Hopefully we can get everyone to play their assigned games and make this a fun challenge between our 2 great conferences.  Teams from each conference will be ranked based on RPI from the season that just finished, with the top ranked teams from each conference playing each other (unless there is a conflict with the other tourney I'm starting, the Bidwell Bash, which will invite the top 5 teams in D2 Allen to join CSU Chico in a round robin tournament...if their is a conflict 1 will play 2 and 2 will play 1) all the way down to team 12 from each conference playing each other.  I will post the RPIs in the next couple of posts and then will post the schedule.  Please schedule those games as soon as recruiting starts.

Here are the standings from the end of season 65 for each conference to use in scheduling Challenge games for season 67.

So here are the rankings:

CCAA:
1. UC, Davis
2. UC, San Diego
3. CSU, Dominguez Hills
4. CSU, Los Angeles
5. CSU, Bakersfield
6. San Francisco St.
7. Grand Canyon
8. CSU, Chico
9. CSU, San Bernadino
10. Sonoma St.
11. CSU, Stanislaus
12. Cal Poly Pomona

Gulf South:
1. Alabama, Huntsville
2. S. Arkansas
3. Arkansas Tech
4. West Georgia
5. Christian Brothers
6. Harding
7. Central Arkansas
8. Lincoln Memorial
9. Delta St.
10. Arkansas, Monticello
11. Ouachita Baptist
12. Henderson St.

Awesome...I get the Fightin' Okra of Delta State! What's the plan for who gets home court?  Great job for getting this going duncan!

Looks like we will play Central Arkansas.

We will alternate how home and away teams are determined each year.  For season 67, odd numbered CCAA teams will be at home and even numbered CCAA teams will be on the road (it will be the opposite next season).  Here are the matchups for season 67:

Game 5
Cal Poly Pomona @ Henderson St.
Ouachita Baptist @ CSU, Stanislaus

Game 6
Sonoma St. @ Arkansas, Monticello
Delta St. @ CSU, San Bernadino

Game 7
Central Arkansas @ Grand Canyon

Game 8
San Francisco St. @ Harding
Christian Brothers @ CSU, Bakersfield

Game 9
CSU, Los Angeles @ West Georgia

Game 10
Arkansas Tech @ CSU, Dominguez Hills
CSU, Chico @ Lincoln Memorial (this game has been moved to game 10 instead of game 7 to accomodate the Bidwell Bash Invitational schedule)
UC, San Diego @ South Arkansas
Alabama, Huntsville @ UC, Davis

Last night was the opening night of the CCAA-Gulf South Challenge.  Here's how the opening night went:

Henderson St. 79, Cal Poly Pomona 69
barretchap's #1 Henderson St. team came into this game a huge 42-point favorite, but theluke and Cal Poly Pomona game them a scare, leading 32-31 at the half, but the second half was all Henderson St.  Four of Henderson St.'s starters scored in double figures, led by C Paul Eisele's 16 points and 9 boards.  It was a great team effort from Henderson, with 20 assists and only 11 turnovers.  Cal Poly Pomona put up a good fight, but Henderson St. was just too much.

Ouachita Baptist 102, CSU Stanislaus 67
SimAi never had a chance in this one.  swany623's Ouchita Baptist squad ran out to a 55-36 halftime lead and never looked back on the way to a runaway victory.  Ouachita Baptist was led by Jie Chiu's 28 point effort.

Gulf South 2, CCAA 0.

Delta St. 67, CSU San Bernardino 47
rednu and CSU San Bernardino jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead, but Delta St. and salag then went on an 11-0 run and never gave up the lead the rest of the game, cruising to a 67-47 win on the road.  Delta St. was led by Carl Conte's 21 point effort on the offensive side of the floor, and smothering team defense on the other, holding CSU San Bernardino to just 34.5% shooting from the floor and just 19% from behind the arc.

The other game that was to have been played last night never got scheduled.

Gulf South 3, CCAA 0.

No game last night.  The one that was supposed to be played never got scheduled.

Harding 86, San Francisco St. 73
The first half of this game was a game of runs.  norm24 and Harding raced out to a 14-5 lead in the game's opening 5 minutes and then platoisek's San Francisco St. team went on a 12-2 run of their own to go up by a point at the 12:39 mark of the first half.  The rest of the first half was pretty close until Harding closed it out with a 11-4 run over the final 2 minutes of the half to go into the lockerroom up 45-39.  The second half was all Harding, with Harding's lead never falling below 5 points on their way to an 86-73 victory, led by 18 points from C Robet Bartsch and 17 points off the bench from SF Joseph Bean.  Harding also played great team defense, forcing San Francisco St. into 20 turnovers, which it turned into 19 points.

Christian Brothers 66, CSU Bakersfield 63
This was a fantastic back-and-forth affair, with neither team leading by more than 6 points the whole way.  Down 59-54 with just over 5 minutes to play, tianyi7886's Christian Brothers squad went on a 12-4 run over the remainder of the game on the road to pick up the win.    Christian Brothers was led by PG Raymond Roberts' 21 points and 6 boards out of the 2-spot in the lineup in the win.  Christian Brothers held CSU Bakersfield to just 37.7% shooting from the floor in the contest.  The 2 teams committed a combined 43 fouls as the refs got a little whistle happy, with CSU Bakersfield losing 2 starters to fouls in the game.  A quick look at the stat sheet shows this was a very even contest, with a rebounding differential of 1, the same number of assists, a turnover differential of 1, and close numbers in many other stat lines.

This has been a 1-sided conference challenge so far, with the Gulf South now holding a commanding 5-0 lead.  The only way the CCAA can win the Challenge is by winning all 5 remaining games by at least 82 points, which seems pretty unlikely.

West Georgia 61, CSU Los Angeles 58
This game was a tale of 2 halves, with the first half belonging to cbryant31 and CSU Los Angeles, but the second half (and final score) belonging to sslats and West Georgia.  CSU Los Angeles played absolutely smothering defense in the first half, holding West Georgia to just 30.4% shooting from the field (7-for-23) at the half, and they lit up the nets, shooting a blistering 60.9% from the floor in the first half, on their way to a 35-21 halftime advantage on the road.  I'm not sure what sslats told his team at halftime, but that must have been one heck of a halftime talk.  In the second half West Georgia shot 51.9% from the field and held CSU Los Angeles to just 18 shots from the field, of which they made only 6 (33.3% second half shooting).  West Georgia was led by 17 points from SG Ryan Moore and 16 points from PG Thomas Brown in the win.

And that's a wrap before the final night's 4 games are even played.  Gulf South now leads 6-0