SAN FRANCISCO – Phoenix O'Rourke (San Mateo, California, Junipero Serra) hit two clutch 3-pointers in the second half as the San Francisco State men's basketball team erased a five-point deficit to defeat Cal State Monterey Bay 62-53 on Wednesday night in the Main Gymnasium. The Gators built a 14-point halftime lead and then survived a scoring drought midway through the second period to raise their record to 14-10 on the season and 8-9 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Meanwhile with the loss, the Otters slip to 14-10 as well, including an identical 8-9 mark in league play.

 

“This was a very exciting victory for us,” said SF State guard Will Logan (Apple Valley, California, Apple Valley). “We played with a lot of passion and intensity throughout the game. Hopefully, this gives us a little momentum as we head towards the finish in our conference.”

 

The Gators received a tremendous contribution from their bench, outscoring the Otter reserves by a 34-14 margin.  Leading the charge were O'Rourke and Brad Visman (Placerville, California, El Dorado, UC Riverside), who each tied for game-high honors with 11 points apiece. In addition, O'Rourke finished with a career-high six rebounds and tied his collegiate best with three triples in 26 minutes. Meanwhile, starter Alex Thomas (Vallejo, California, Hogan, Dominican University) also reached double figures with 10 points, while dishing out a game-high four assists.

 

SF State broke open a close ballgame in the first half as a jumper by Martin Flores (Woodland, California, Woodland, Solano Junior College) with 7:59 remaining capped a 16-4 run to give the home team a 13-point bulge at 23-10. CSUMB kept within in striking distance, however, putting together a 10-2 spurt of its own to pull within 25-20 at the 4:15 mark. The Gators promptly responded with an 11-2 outburst to take a 36-22 cushion into the locker room, punctuated by Logan's 3-point basket with six seconds on the clock. 

 

SF State was unable to keep the Otters at bay after the break as the visitors used an 18-3 run to grab the lead at 40-39. Meanwhile, the Gators experienced an offensive drought, connecting on just one of their first nine field-goal attempts during an 11:17 stretch, which brought CSUMB back into contention. When Dante Green converted a layup at the 8:36 mark, the Otters had their biggest advantage of the evening at 44-39.

 

SF State righted the ship at this juncture as the host team reeled off 10 straight points to reclaim the lead at 49-44 with 4:54 left to play. Thomas got things started with a jumper, while Visman converted an old-fashioned 3-point play.  Then after a turnover, O'Rourke put the Gators ahead to stay with a triple from the right corner, while Logan completed the blitz, driving in for a layup after a steal.

 

CSUMB hit a pair of foul shots to narrow the gap to back down to three, but O'Rourke came up big once again, draining a long-distance trey from left side of the free-throw circle to give the SF State a 52-46 advantage at the 4:28 mark. With momentum on their side, the Gators stretched the margin to nine at 56-47 just over a minute later, courtesy of a Visman jumper with 3:18 left on the clock.

 

The Otters were able to narrow the gap to five on two occasions, but Thomas calmly hit four free throws in the final 47 seconds to ice the game.

Despite committing 21 turnovers, including 12 steals, the Gators owned a 21-18 edge in points off turnovers and maintained a 41-35 rebounding advantage.

CSUMB was paced by Green, who finished with a game-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Steve Monreal added 11 in the defeat. 

SF State returns to the court on Friday, Feb. 20, when it travels south to take on UC San Diego at RIMAC Arena in La Jolla, Calif.  Tipoff for the Gators' final road game of the 2008-09 regular season is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

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