LA JOLLA, Calif. - Cal Poly Pomona broke things open after leading by six at halftime and rolled past No. 24 Chico State for the third time this season, 78-53, in the semifinals of the 2019-20 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Men's Basketball Tournament at UC San Diego's RIMAC Arena Friday afternoon.

In winning its fifth in a row, second-seeded Cal Poly Pomona improved to 23-6 overall. Third-seeded Chico State, which had entered on a six-game success streak of its own and was coming off back-to-back overtime thrillers with Stanislaus State, fell to 23-7. The Broncos had swept the regular-season series with the Wildcats. Like the initial meeting on Dec. 7 in Chico, CPP did not trail in this one.

Cal Poly Pomona advances to play fourth-ranked host UC San Diego (29-1), the CCAA regular-season champion and tournament top seed, in Saturday's final, set for a 5:02 p.m. tip-off inside RIMAC Arena.

Cal Poly Pomona took a tenuous 32-26 advantage into the locker room, and saw Chico State knot the score at 34-34 at the 17:56 mark through an 8-0 run by Malik Duffy and Kevin Warren on the heels of a William Christmas bucket for starters. That was in fact the only tie in the contest.

From there on in it was all Broncos, as they went on a 27-6 run to effectively put the game away at 61-40 with 8:45 to go. That stretch was punctuated by 12 straight points for CPP after Spencer LaShells had made it a single-digit deficit one last time at 49-40 with a triple. Juniors Tavian Henderson, Mason Dickerson and Phoenix Shackelford then strung together two-point baskets, the latter sprung by a Christmas steal. After the under-12 media timeout, sophomore Finn Eckhardt connected on a three, and on the Broncos' next possession, it was junior BJ Standley hitting from the outside.

When the dust finally settled, Cal Poly Pomona had shot an unbelievable 73.1 percent (19-26) from the floor in the second half, with five three-pointers on 10 tries, to outscore the 'Cats 46-27.

Christmas finished with a game-high 17 points to give him a single-season career-best 447 on the year. He shot 7-of-12 from the field and added six rebounds, two steals, one assist and a block.

Justin Young had 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, grabbed a game-high eight boards, and blocked a pair of shots, pushing him over 100 denials for his college career, now with 101. Fellow senior Nikhil Peters reached a milestone as well, with his five points enabling him to eclipse the 500-point mark for his Bronco days, currently at 504.

The afternoon began with an initial 5-0 spurt by CPP at the start through a Peters three and Young dunk off an offensive rebound. Chico State was held scoreless until Kelvin Wright, Jr., finally made the second of two free throws on the other side of the initial media timeout at 15:54. Christmas immediately answered that with a three-pointer for 8-1.

Wright would then go on to notch Chico State's first made field goal of the contest at 14:25, and tally the 'Cats' first five points overall. Standley's triple out of the under-12 break made it a 15-8 bulge, with Christmas later completing a three-point play for 18-12 at 9:40. Young contributed back-to-back baskets to extend the lead out again to 23-15.

Cal Poly Pomona had four in double digits in all, with Shackelford providing 14 points off the bench and Standley going for 11 alongside a game-high five assists.

The Broncos defensively allowed those 53 points on .304 (17-56) shooting from the floor and .190 (4-21) from three-point range, all season lows for Chico State.

Isaiah Brooks was the lone Wildcat in double-figure scoring, with 10 points. Lone senior Justin Briggs, on Thursday named the inaugural CCAA Defensive Player of the Year, wound up with six points, seven rebounds, two blocks and a steal. Chico State committed 17 turnovers, having been forced into 41 miscues by the Bronco defense in this year's prior two matchups.

Cal Poly Pomona's opponent in the final, UC San Diego, won its program-record 21st-consecutive game behind a tournament-record 45 points from CCAA Most Valuable Player Tyrell Roberts, 86-82 over No. 5 seed Cal State East Bay in Friday's second semifinal. Saturday will mark a third-straight CCAA Tournament final between the rivals, with UC San Diego the victor of the first two as three-time reigning conference tourney champion. The sides also met in the title tilt in 2008, when the event returned following a 13-year hiatus, with the outcome also in the Tritons' favor that night in San Bernardino.

An automatic berth into the eight-team NCAA Division II West Regional will be on the line Saturday night. Both squads, and indeed even Chico State, are virtually assured of earning at-large qualification. The game can be watched for free on ESPN3. The CCAA's tournament page can be accessed here, with ticket and parking information here. Admission is $3 for current Cal Poly Pomona students. Parking permits are required.

Bronco Bits: For the seventh game in a row and seventh time this season, Cal Poly Pomona started the lineup of seniors William Christmas, Nikhil Peters, Riley Schaefer and Justin Young, alongside junior BJ Standley ... Peters and Schaefer are the lone Broncos who have started all 29 contests ... Over the first 29 games, Christmas has had at least a share of the team high in points 14 times, and game high 11 ... Christmas' previous single-season career high was 431 points a year ago ... Young becomes just the fourth in program history to block 100 shots over a career ... The Broncos are 13-4 outside of Pomona in 2019-20, including 3-1 in neutral-site affairs ... Cal Poly Pomona began the day fifth in Division II in scoring defense (63.0) and sixth in field goal percentage defense (40.1), allowing marks Friday of 53 and 30.4, respectively ... These teams had split their two meetings in each of the past two years, with both sides winning on the road last season ... CPP did not trail once tonight, nor during its 69-67 victory in Chico on Dec. 7, and was only behind for 1:52 when it defeated the 'Cats 73-57 at home on Feb. 13 ... The Broncos forced Chico State into 58 turnovers in this season's three meetings, including 23 in Pomona on Feb. 13, a season high for the 'Cats ... In their 16th CCAA Tournament appearance, including 13th straight since the event made its return for the 2007-08 season, the Broncos are 20-13 (.606) all-time in the tourney, with a pair of titles in 2012-13 and 2014-15 ... They are 4-1 in CCAA Tournament matchups with Chico State, with wins in the final in both years that the Broncos lifted the trophy ... Head coach Greg Kamansky is 417-165 (.716) overall during his 20-year career and 19-10 (.655) in the CCAA Tournament, having never missed one ... It was another return to the UC San Diego campus for Kamansky, a 1988 graduate and one of the greatest players in program history as an NCAA Division III All-American as a senior in 1986-87 who left the school as its second-leading all-time scorer, and is now fourth, with 1588 career points.