SAN FRANCISCO – Senior Andrea Ohlssen (Pacifica, Calif., Sacred Heart Cathedral, Cal Poly Pomona) scored a game-high 14 points to lead the San Francisco State women's basketball team to a 60-43 defeat of the Cal Maritime Academy on Tuesday night in the Main Gymnasium. Ohlssen converted six of her seven field goal attempts (85.7 percent) and was 2-for-3 from beyond the 3-point arc to help the Gators even their record at 3-3 overall. Meanwhile with the loss, the Keelhaulers slip to 2-5 on the season.  

 

SF State also received double-digit scoring efforts from senior Kalia Williams (Los Angeles, Calif., Saint Monica, San Jose State), who notched a sesaon-best 12 points to go along with a career-high 12 rebounds for her first collegiate double-double, while fellow classmate Juliet Masei (Mojave, Calif., Desert HS, Dickinson State) poured in a season-best 10 points of her own.

 

“We were able to execute our half-court offense extremely well tonight”, said Gator head coach Joaquin Wallace. “However, we need to remedy the turnover issue on our team or else we will struggle against quality teams in our conference—bottom line.

 

Freshman Sidney Dobner (Newbury Park, Calif, Newbury Park HS) was another in a long line of SF State contributors to the winning effort, posting season highs of eight steals and six assists, while senior Donisha Tate (Oakland, Calif., Oakland HS, Las Positas College) showed her prowess on the glass with a game-best 15 rebounds, including six on the offensive end.

 

As a team, SF State shot 41.9 percent from the field on 26-of-62 field goal attempts, limiting CMA to a 28.1 percent clip as the visitors connected on just 16 of their 57 of their tries. Despite committing more turnovers (25-17), the Gators owned a sizable advantage in rebounds (55-28) and points in the paint (32-12) en route to the victory.

 

SF State never trailed in the contest as consecutive 3-pointers by Masei and two Dobner free throws gave the home team a 16-3 cushion by the 13:20 mark in the first half. After a trey by the Keelhaulers' Cherish Bustos on the ensuing possession, the Gators fashioned a 16-6 run over a 12-minute stretch, capped by a Williams jumper, to stake its largest lead of the period at 34-14 with 58 seconds remaining before intermission.

 

SF State maintained its 20-point bulge in the early stages of the second half as a pair of foul shots by junior Dominique Hunter (San Francisco, Calif., Gateway HS) made the score 39-19 at the 16:11 mark. CMA would not go quietly, however, as the Keelhaulers ripped off 11 straight points over the next four minutes, highlighted by a trio of Taylor Himmelspach 3-pointers and a layup by Lauren Westbrook, which trimmed the Gator lead to 39-30. After an SF State miss at the other end, CMA threatened to narrow the gap even further, but Williams came up with a steal and promptly fed senior Jessica Hout-Freeman (Fremont, Calif., Washington HS) for a layup to restore the Gators' double-digit margin at 41-30 with 10:42 remaining in the game.