Box Score SAN FRANCISCO --- Despite a valiant surge late in the game against UC San Diego, San Francisco State came up short against the Tritons Friday night, falling in a close 53-51 result. Free throws continue to be a thorn in the Gators' side, which proved to be pivotal in the loss.

"We played a tough game tonight," said head coach Dr. Joaquin Wallace. "It came down to making free throws and obviously we weren't able to close the deal. I feel defensively we did a really good job against a good program."

With the loss, SF State drops to 8-7 overall, 5-6 in California Collegiate Athletic Association action. UCSD, on the other hand, improves to 10-8 overall and 8-3 in conference play.

Nicole Hicks led the Gators with 13 points, posting the best free throw percentage at 75-percent. Hicks now moves into the 15 spot in the SF State record book with 815 career points. Angela Van Sickel wasn't far behind Hicks, finishing with 12 points on the night. She scored the Gators' only two three-point shots and currently needs eight more to move into fourth on the all-time career three-pointer list. Lauren Varney led the rebound effort for San Francisco State, grabbing 10 of the Gators' 46 rebounds.

For the Tritons, Erin Dautremont led with a game-high 20 points off 9-for-13 shooting, followed by Daisy Feder's 15 points--11 of which came from the charity stripe.

Due to technical difficulties with the shot clock, the Tritons were awarded two free throw shots before the game even started to give UCSD a two-point advantage from the tip off. UCSD took advantage of opportunities early in the game and established an 11-2 lead just two and a half minutes into the competition.

The Gators took a timeout to regroup and scored four unanswered points to put the score at 11-6. The Tritons responded with two points of their own, but Van Sickel sent an arching shot from behind the arc off an assist from Varney to cut the lead to four. Varney looked for another pass option in the next play, but finding no one free finished a jumper at an angle to cut the score to 13-11 and Farrah Shokoor tied the game at 13-13.

Although SF State continued to beat down on UCSD's back, the Tritons wouldn't relinquish their lead. With just under two minutes left before halftime, UC San Diego tried to hold onto a 23-21 lead, but started to unravel a little. After the Gators surrendered a turnover to the Tritons, Van Sickel stole the ball right back and drove to the basket to finish a layup through traffic. Just seconds later Hicks took the ball away from Feder and drove for an easy basket to give SF State its first lead of the night at 25-23. 

With the momentum shifting in favor of the Gators, they grabbed possession from the Tritons one more time with less than a minute in the first half, forcing UCSD to commit a foul. Like the other times SF State found itself at the line, the Gators could only finish one of the two shots to tajke a 26-23 lead, managing to hold onto a 26-25 edge heading into halftime.

UC San Diego came out of halftime determined to take back the game and established a 38-30 lead over the Gators in the first five minutes of the second period. Michaela Booker found Van Sickel making a run to the basket, sending her a bounce pass from out of bounds to give the Gators an easy two points. 

San Francisco State continued to battle from behind and cut the Tritons' lead to 45-42 off another fast break play. Booker stole the ball away from UCSD to create a two-on-one situation with Erica Lohrenz. Booker passed off the ball to Lohrenz to put the game within one possession with 7:07 left to play.

Down by four with less than a minute left to play, Hicks made a jumper to bring the score within two points at 53-51. Depsite the urgency to find another basket as the clock wond down, the Gators came up empty-handed to end the game with the loss. SF State will look to rebound Saturday night as it hosts Cal State San Bernardino at 5:30 p.m. at The Swamp.

"We did everything we could to win the game, but we still haven't learned how to close games out," said Wallace. "Hopefully we can learn from this, move on and be ready to play tomorrow against a good team in CSU San Bernardino."

The CSUSB Coyotes are also looking to bounce back from a defeat after falling 53-50 to Sonoma State.

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