Toros Let Another Chance Slip Away : Basketball: Dominguez Hills loses to Cal Poly Pomona, 60-56, and fails in bid to clinch berth in conference playoffs.

The waiting continues for the Cal State Dominguez Hills men’s basketball team.

Cal Poly Pomona’s Eric Jones made a 12-foot jump shot with 18 seconds to secure a 60-56 victory over the Toros in a California Collegiate Athletic Assn. game at Cal Poly Pomona Saturday night.

The Toros, who lost their third game in a row, must defeat Chapman in its regular-season finale to assure themselves of a berth in the four-team CCAA postseason tournament.

Dominguez Hills (15-9) had rallied from an eight-point deficit with under five minutes to play to close to 58-56 on a tip-in by Norm Francis with 56 seconds left.

The Broncos’ victory forged a three-way tie for third in the conference standings with Dominguez Hills and Cal State San Bernardino, all at 6-7. Cal State Bakersfield and UC Riverside have already clinched first and second place.

The Broncos, who avenged a 74-56 loss to Dominguez Hills in the first game, must beat Cal State L.A. in its regular-season finale on Saturday to finish among the top four.

On Thursday, Dominguez Hills, searching for its third tournament berth in five seasons, lost in the final 30 seconds to Cal State Los Angeles.

“We can’t take anybody lightly,” Dominguez Hills Coach Dave Yanai said. “It came down to a few possessions. It was almost a replica of the game the other night.”

Vince Washington finished with a game-high 22 points and Chris Thompson had 13 for Dominguez Hills, but the Toros made only 16 of 26 free throws and the Broncos did not miss in 17 attempts.

Matt Mitchell put Pomona ahead, 56-48, with 4:32 to play, but the Toros, who trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half, cut the deficit to 56-54 on two free throws by Washington with 2:07 to play. Jerry Curtin converted both ends of a one and one to extend the lead to 58-54 with 1:29 remaining.

The Toros made 12 of 22 shots (54.5%) in the second half. Dominguez Hills made only seven of 27 (25.9%) in the first half and committed 11 turnovers and fell behind 35-26, at halftime.

“We were mentally ready, but they were fired up with their backs to the wall,” Washington said. “We can’t dwell on winning game, we need to focus on the game at hand.”

Jones made two free throws to give the Broncos a 30-18 lead with 4:41 left in the first half. Dominguez Hills scored eight consecutive points to cut the deficit to 30-26 on a driving layup by Bennett.

The Toros, however, went scoreless over the last 2:25 as Joe Jennum made two free throws and a three-point basket to put Pomona ahead by nine points at halftime.