POMONA -- Fresh off final exams, the red-hot Cal Poly Pomona men's basketball team will host a pair of California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) contests in the week ahead.
 
The Broncos, who boast the CCAA's longest current win streak at five in a row, welcome in Cal State San Marcos on Thursday night, Dec. 19, at 7:30 p.m., and No. 8-ranked preseason favorite UC San Diego on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 3:30 p.m. Both games will cap doubleheaders with the CPP women. All of the action inside Kellogg Arena can be watched for free on the CCAA Network, either online at ccaanetwork.com, or by downloading the channel on Android, Roku, Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV.
 
At 7-2 overall and 3-1 in league play, Cal Poly Pomona shares second place in the CCAA standings with Cal State Dominguez Hills, behind leader Cal State East Bay (9-3, 5-1 CCAA). The Broncos are receiving votes just outside of the top 25 of this week's NABC national poll, moved into the D2SIDA media listing at No. 20 last week, and are No. 3 in the D2SIDA West Region poll. They are an even 1-1 at home.
 
Cal Poly Pomona's 96-64 home demolition of Humboldt State on Thursday, Dec. 5, marked win No. 400 for 20th-year head coach Greg Kamansky, who now holds a 401-161 (.714) career record. His Broncos will look to get Kamansky two closer to another milestone at home this week, as he is five away from his 300th career CCAA victory, at 295-115 (.720).
 
Thursday's opponent, Cal State San Marcos, is 12th in the standings at 5-5 overall and 1-3 in league action. The Cougars are coming off a 67-59 home defeat of Sonoma State on Dec. 5 that snapped a four-game losing skid. Cal Poly Pomona swept two meetings a year ago, including an 88-55 rout in Pomona on Feb. 9 in which the Broncos trailed 31-29 at halftime and outscored CSUSM 59-24 after the interval. CPP has won three straight over the Cougars in all.
 
Fourth-place UC San Diego (8-1, 2-1 CCAA) plays at Cal State Dominguez Hills on Tuesday and also hosts Sonoma State Thursday prior to Sunday's big showdown in Pomona. The Tritons also just wrapped up final exams, and most recently on Dec. 5 suffered their first defeat of the season, 81-73, at home against Chico State as they took the court for the first time without reigning CCAA Player of the Year Chris Hansen, who is expected to be missing for a period of time due to injury.
 
The Broncos suffered a pair of postseason losses to UC San Diego in their final two games of the 2018-19 campaign, in the CCAA Tournament final (71-62) in Hayward, and then the NCAA West Regional quarterfinals (61-50) at Point Loma in San Diego. The regular-season matchup on Feb. 7 had gone to Cal Poly Pomona at home, 67-62.
 
Cal Poly Pomona is again led by fourth-year senior William Christmas, an early-season contender for CCAA Player of the Year. The CCAA Player of the Week for Dec. 2-8 is averaging 19.2 points per game for second in the conference, while also pacing the team in rebounding (6.3). Christmas is sixth in the league in field goal shooting (.530), seventh in free throw shooting (.808), third in steals (2.2), and tied for sixth in assists (3.8). Earlier this year back on Nov. 29, he joined the 1,000-point, 500-rebound club when he grabbed his first board against Saint Katherine in San Bernardino. Christmas needs just four more assists to reach 250 for his Bronco days.
 
As a team, Cal Poly Pomona is ranked among the best defensive units in all of Division II. The Broncos are eighth in scoring defense (62.4) and field goal percentage defense (37.8), 10th in turnover margin (6.9), 12th in turnovers forced (19.22) and 14th in steals per game (10.3), topping the CCAA in each category.
 
This week's home games will wrap up the 2019 calendar year for Cal Poly Pomona. The Broncos will kick off 2020 up in the Bay Area at Sonoma State on Thursday, Jan. 2, at 7:30 p.m., and at San Francisco State on Saturday, Jan. 4, at 3 p.m.