SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco State men's basketball team trailed for over 35 minutes on Friday night before the Gators came back to win 81-73 over visiting Cal State East Bay in CCAA action.
The Gators (11-7/8-5 CCAA) left it all on the floor, literally. Senior
Brantley Bynum poured in a career-high 27 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds before leaving in the final minute after chipping his two front teeth while on defense. The senior's three-pointer with under five minutes to go gave the Gators their first lead of the game at 66-64. Bynum followed with a layup and a pair of Chase Wickliffe free throws capped a 10-0 and 23-3 Gators run that resulted in a six-point advantage. Druce Asah sank a pair of free throws but a backdoor slam dunk and one by Wickliffe fired up the crowd and resulted in a seven-point lead. The Gators used free throws to widen the margin and
Evan Zeller's layup with under a minute to go made it an 11-point lead.
Asah, who had a team-high 18 points for the Pioneers (8-11/4-9 CCAA), started the game with back-to-back three-pointers. The Gators scored just 10 points in the first 10 minutes of action and trailed by as much as 14 in the second half. Cal State East Bay made five of its first seven three-point attempts but cooled off, going just 1-of-11 after that. After allowing 10 second chance points, the Gators didn't allow any in the second half. The Gators were outrebounded 18-12 in the first half but dominated the glass in the second half, 20-11.
"Cal State East Bay gives a tremendous effort every time out on the court and does not give you anything. They outplayed us in the first half and credit to them," said Head Coach
Vince Inglima. "We came out in the second half with a different energy and a different attitude. Brantley made big play after big play to dig us out of that hole. Our effort on the glass really changed the momentum."
Tyler Jackson,
Warren Jackson, Wickliffe, and Zeller all finished with 10 points apiece.
Chiefy Ugbaja added eight points before fouling out.
"Jase had a big game and Tyler came off the bench and was really effective," added Inglima. "Overall, I'm pleased but there are some issues that we need to continue to improve and the big one is our approach to starting the game."
The Gators made it a season sweep of the Pioneers and have won eight of their last 10 meetings. SF State won the first matchup of the season in another come-from-behind victory. The Gators trailed by 20 points with 10 minutes to go before eventually winning that game 83-79 in overtime.
Up Next
The Gators host Cal State Monterey Bay (4-13/3-10 CCAA) on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. Live stats and video will be provided, and be sure to follow
@sfstate_mbb for in-game updates.
