ROHNERT PARK, Calif. — The San Francisco State men's basketball team had its best defensive showing on Thursday night in a 64-55 victory over Sonoma State in the Wolves' Den.
The Gators (6-3/3-1 CCAA) led wire-to-wire and continued their dominance of the Seawolves (3-5/1-3 CCAA), who were held to a season-low 55 points. San Francisco State has now won the last six meetings between the two teams and 10 of the last 12.
"Our defensive effort tonight was the best that we've put together all season," said said San Francisco State Head Coach
Vince Inglima. "To hold Sonoma State to 41 percent from the field and 29 percent from three is a great effort. You're going to win a lot of games if you hold teams to 55 points."
After a 27-minute delay due to a broken rim, the Gators came out firing. SF State jumped out to a 7-0 start and six minutes into action, led by 14 on
Ryne Williams' layup.
Warren Jackson' fastbreak layup with 11 minutes to go gave the Gators their largest lead of the night at 15. However, the Gators went cold and were held to just two points over the final six minutes of the half, which allowed the Seawolves to trim the lead to five by halftime.
A minute into the second half, Jackson Gion hit a three-pointer to pull the Seawolves to within a point, 30-29.
Evan Zeller, who was 1-of-6 from three-point land in the first half, missed his first attempt of the second half but hit three in a row for the Gators. That put SF State up eight and Sonoma State got no closer than five points the rest of the way.
"Evan struggled in the first half. He had some great looks and they were rimming out. You can't keep a good shooter down for long," said Inglima. "Those three shots really opened us up and gave our team confidence. We were still ahead but that opened up some things for other guys."
Zeller scored a game-high 15 points and added three assists in 27 minutes of action.
Brantley Bynum added 10 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Williams had nine points on 4-of-8 shooting.
Warren Jackson scored nine points and had three rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
Jash Kahlon added seven points, all in the first half, and four rebounds.
The Seawolves were led by Jordan Fleck's 15 points off the bench.
"It's always fun coming back to Sonoma State. I have a lot of fond memories here and I got to add another one tonight," added Inglima, who was an All-American his senior season at Sonoma State.
Up Next
The Gators head to Chico State (5-2/3-1 CCAA) on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. Live stats and video will be provided by the Wildcats. For in-game updates, follow
@sfstate_mbb on Twitter.
