SAN FRANCISCO – Despite a valiant second-half rally to force overtime, the San Francisco State women's basketball team came up on the short end of 68-66 decision to visiting Cal Poly Pomona on Friday in the Main Gymnasium.
Senior Donisha Tate (Oakland, Cali., Oakland HS, Las Positas College) recorded her third consecutive double-double and sixth of the season with game highs of 20 points and 10 rebounds, but it wasn't enough as the Gators slip to 7-11 on the season and 3-7 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, while the Broncos raise their record to 11-3 overall and 9-1 in league play.
“Pomona is a very good team and we were not able to play consistently throughout the game,” said SF State head coach Joaquin Wallace. “Against good teams there is no margin for error and we have repeatedly put ourselves in a position to win. However, we have come up short pretty much all season. Hopefully we can learn from this and play a good game on Saturday to get a split this weekend.”
In addition to Tate's performance, SF State received a season-high 15 points from senior Jessica Hout-Freeman (Fremont, Calif., Washington HS), including 13 after intermission, while junior Dominique Hunter (San Francisco, Calif., Gateway HS) added 14 points and nine rebounds.
CPP was paced by Reyana Colson's 16 points and a game-high six assists, while La'kenya Simon-West and Stephisha Walton added 14 and 11 points, respectively.
The Gators trailed 53-44 after Walton sank a free throw with 6:33 left in regulation. However, SF State battled back for the remainder of the period, employing a 13-4 run to send the game into overtime.
Following a pair of Tate foul shots that cut the deficit to five at 57-52 with 1:45 to go, Hout-Freeman promptly came up with a steal on the Broncos' ensuing possession and threaded an outlet pass to freshman Sidney Dobner (Newbury Park, Calif., Newbury Park HS), who cruised in for a layup to narrow the gap even further at 57-54.
CPP committed another costly turnover on its next trip down the court, while Hout-Freeman made the first of two free throws, grabbing the loose ball after her second attempt to give SF State a chance to tie with 31 seconds remaining. The Gators took advantage of their break as Hunter's layup off a Tate entry pass knotted the score at 57-57 with 20 seconds left. Shortly thereafter, Colson's short jumper in the lane was off target as Tate came up with the rebound with two ticks on the clock.
The score was tied on three additional occasions in the overtime session until a Tate layup gave the Gators their final lead of the contest at 65-63 with 1:30 to go. Then, Colson drilled a long 3-pointer to put the Broncos ahead to stay, 66-65, at the 1:07 mark. Moments later after an errant SF State 3-point try, Colson tacked on two free throws with 12 seconds left to put the visitors in the driver's seat at 68-65.
Incredibly, Colson gave the home team a glimmer of hope after a timeout, committing her fifth foul of the night on SF State's last-second 3-point attempt. However, the Gators were unable to capitalize, hitting just one of three shots from the charity stripe to give the contest its final score.
The two sides connected on 25 field goals apiece; however, CPP converted on seven of its 15 tries from 3-point land, while SF State was just 1 of 15 from beyond the arc. Despite holding a 34-18 scoring advantage in the paint, the Gators were minus-6 in points off turnovers.
The first half witnessed five lead changes and three ties in the opening six minutes when Colson converted a 3-point opportunity, igniting a 19-3 outburst that gave the Broncos a 28-14 cushion.
However, the SF State defense clamped down, limiting CPP to just two free throws for the final 6:48 of the period. In the meantime, the Gators fashioned 16-2 run of their own as a Dobner runner with 1:11 before intermission pulled the hosts to within two, 30-28. Then, Rossyln Beard sank the aforementioned foul shots to provide the 32-28 halftime score.
SF State wraps up its weekend homestand on Saturday when it squares off against Cal State San Bernardino starting at 5:30 p.m.
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