Box Score SAN FRANCISCO--- The visiting ninth ranked Cal State San Bernardino Coyotes (12-1, 9-0 CCAA) outscored the SF State Gators 13-6 in the final four minutes to key their 76-65 this evening at The Swamp. Kirby Gardner paced the Coyotes with 24 points while Will Overton Jr. had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Gators.
"I am proud of guys as we competed for 36 minutes with one of the best teams in the West Region," said SF State head coach
Paul Trevor. "We could not finish the job and hopefully we can learn from this." "The true test is will be how we respond tomorrow night."
Besides Gardner's 24 points, Jordan Burris chipped in 19 points for the visitors and Joshua Gouch added 10 points. Lacy Haddock had 11 of the Coyotes' 18 assists. Cal State San Bernardino forced 24 turnovers by the Gators including 14 in the second half. The visitors also had 15 steals led by Gouch and Burris each with five.
The Gators (7-5, 5-4 CCAA) also received double digits from
Nefi Perdomo, who scored 19 points and had five of the Gators' 10 steals. SF State did out-rebound its guests 47-27 including getting 15 rebounds from
Brandon Tatum.
SF State jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but the Coyotes came right back and took a11-9 lead on a Burris tip-in at the 13:57 mark.
The game saw four ties in the first 12 minutes of the game with SF State going on a 11-4 run to take a 32-25 lead with just four minutes left in the half.
SF State held a 38-31 lead late in the first half, but the Coyotes went on a 6-0 run to end the half and cut the Gator lead to 38-37.
The visitors outscored the Gators 10-2 in the first five minutes of the second half to take a 47-40 lead.
SF State would not go away as the Gators cut the deficit to 52-50 on three by
Derrick Brown off an assist fro Overton with a little over 10 minutes to go in the game.
Cal State San Bernardino came right back and increased its lead to 60-52 in the next four minutes.
The Gators inched back and cut the deficit to 62-59 on a lay-up by Perdomo, but the Coyotes finished the game outscoring their guests 13-6 to take the 75-65 conference road win.
SF State will return home tomorrow afternoon as the Gators face UC San Diego in a CCAA scheduled contest at 7:30pm at The Swamp. The Tritons lost 79-54 at Sonoma State in Rohnert Park.
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