Photo by Elliot Portillo/Cal Poly Humboldt Athletics – Humboldt’s Malek Davis

With two games remaining in the regular season, the Cal Poly Humboldt men’s basketball team remains in the hunt for a CCAA Tournament berth.

The Jacks, however, will have to battle all the way in what is shaping up to be an exciting final few days, with eight teams still in the hunt for the final four tournament spots.

“I told the guys, ‘you have to win yourself into the tournament,’” head coach Tae Norwood said. “We control our own destiny. Our goal is to go down south and try to get two wins to end the season. I want to be playing well before we go into conference (tournament) play.”

The Humboldt men, who close out with road games at Cal State San Marcos on Thursday and at Cal State Los Angeles on Saturday, are 10-10 in conference play and deadlocked in a three-way tie for third in the standings, along with San Francisco State and Sonoma State.

The Jacks are guaranteed a first tournament spot in four years if they win out.

San Marcos is 15-5 in the CCAA and guaranteed to place second place in the final standings, with Cal State San Bernardino already having clinched the championship with a record of 18-2.

Cal State LA is 8-10 in conference and one of the five teams trailing Humboldt that is still in the hunt for the postseason.

Cal Poly Pomona, Chico State and Cal State East Bay are all one win back of the Jacks at 9-11, with Cal State Monterey Bay and Cal State Dominguez Hills tied with LA at 8-12.

The Jacks, who are 12-14 overall, pushed San Marcos all the way when they played at Lumberjack Arena, before the Cougars escaped with a narrow 68-63 victory.

“That’s another game we let get away from us,” Norwood said. “We have to do a better job of guarding high ball-screen action. We definitely have to make some adjustments from last game.

“I’m excited about the weekend,” the coach added. “This thing is winding down and we’d like to play come March.”

Thursday’s game is set for 7:30 p.m., while Saturday’s finale starts at 3 p.m., and fans can catch all the action live on ESPN 107.3 FM and on the CCAA Network.