POMONA, Calif. - The No. 25 Cal Poly Pomona men's basketball team celebrated its first national ranking of the season with a resounding win over Cal State LA, 89-69, in a California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) game Thursday night at Kellogg Arena.

With a third victory in succession, Cal Poly Pomona improved to 11-3 overall and 7-2 in the CCAA. The Broncos, new this Tuesday to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) top 25, remain tied for third with Cal State San Bernardino, as UC San Diego, Chico State and the Coyotes all also won on Thursday. Cal State LA dropped its second game in a row and fell to 9-6 overall and 4-5 in league play.

Riley Schaefer's wing three-pointer broke a 6-6 tie and gave CPP its first lead of the night with a little more than five minutes gone in the contest. After four-straight Golden Eagle points, the Broncos regained a slim 11-10 edge on sophomore Finn Eckhardt's running one-handed jumper in the lane, but the hosts trailed again at the under-12 timeout, 12-11.

In his return to action following a two-game injury absence, senior William Christmas knocked down his only triple of the night to go back on top, 14-12, approaching the 10-minute mark.

A 4-0 mini-run by the Broncos through elbow jumpers by juniors BJ Standley and Phoenix Shackelford was broken up by a baseline Ja'Sean Lewis three-pointer, leaving CPP on top, 22-19, at the under-eight break. Schaefer completed a three-point play off the rebound of his own blocked attempt, and added a baseline triple moments later for 28-21.

That extended run came to be 14-0 for a 36-21 cushion. Schaefer found trailing redshirt freshman Demetrius Williams for another deep ball and then knocked down two free throws, and Shackelford connected on a three-pointer. Shots continued to fall for the Broncos as Standley hit a triple for 39-23. They took a 43-29 bulge into the halftime interval after Tavian Henderson's nifty baseline reverse layup.

Cal Poly Pomona shot 53.3 percent (16-30) from the field in the first 20 minutes, including 40 percent (6-15) from beyond the arc.

A quick 5-0 spurt out of the locker room as Schaefer found Nikhil Peters for a three and Christmas got a put-back layup after a Shackelford steal, made it 48-29 just like that.

Again a 4-0 mini-run punctuated when Standley found Henderson for a dunk with a clever look-away pass, gave the home side a 57-36 lead. Another Henderson flush came seconds later, this time from Shackelford, who had an all-around exceptional floor game with 15 points, a season-best five assists and a game- and career-high six steals.

The Broncos led by as many as 26 on a trio of occasions, including 76-50 on a Christmas three-point play, and 81-55 on a Schaefer three.

Schaefer finished with 20 points to lead all players, 13 of them coming in the first half. He shot 4-of-6 from three-point range, and added seven rebounds. Standley had 17 points and six assists, while Christmas also reached double-figure scoring with 14. He grabbed six boards, with Mason Dickerson pulling down seven off the bench.

The Broncos went 22-of-24 (.917) from the free throw line as a team, with Standley a perfect 8-for-8.

Cal Poly Pomona hosts another area rival in Cal State Dominguez Hills this Saturday night. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. at Kellogg Arena, following the CPP women at 5:30 p.m. Both games are free to watch on the CCAA Network, either online (ccaanetwork.com), or by downloading the channel on Android, Roku, Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV. Admission is free for Cal Poly Pomona students, faculty and staff.

Bronco Bits: Leading scorer William Christmas was back on the court and in the starting lineup following a two-game injury absence, as this time fellow fourth-year senior Justin Young was unavailable ... Young's absence snapped his string of 88-consecutive games played, having last missed a 78-69 home loss to Cal State East Bay as a true freshman back on Dec. 15, 2016 ... Thursday was thus only the second missed contest of Young's college career ... BJ Standley earned a third-straight start alongside Christmas, Nikhil Peters, Riley Schaefer and Phoenix Shackelford ... It marked CPP's third different starting lineup of 2019-20 ... Schaefer reached the 20-point mark for the third time this season and fourth for his career ... Shackelford's previous career high in steals was four, and he had twice previously dished out five assists ... The Broncos are now 3-2 at home this season ... CPP took both meetings a year ago, including a 102-99 quadruple-overtime thriller in the CCAA Tournament semifinals in Hayward on March 8 ... The Broncos have won five-straight meetings in the all-time series, and seven in a row in Pomona (since a 64-61 loss on Feb. 22, 2012) ... CPP will face Cal State LA again on Saturday, Feb. 22, in Los Angeles ... Having achieved career win No. 400 on Dec. 5, 20th-year CPP head coach Greg Kamansky is on the brink of another milestone of 300 CCAA wins, currently at 299 ... Kamansky is now 405-162 (.714) over his career and 299-116 (.720) in CCAA games.