SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Four San Francisco State men's basketball players scored in double digits as the Gators dominated Dominican 83-65 on Saturday night in the Conlan Center.
- The Gators were the only team to go 2-0 in the PacWest/CCAA Challenge. Sonoma State and Academy of Art both went 1-1 while host Dominican went 0-2.
- SF State led wire-to-wire and by as many as 23.
- Linton Acliese III led the Gators with another impressive outing. He followed up his 23-point debut with 25 points on 12-of-25 shooting and nine rebounds.
- Kenny Macklin came off the bench to lead all players with a career-high 10 rebounds.
- Jordan Balser, Eche Okeke, and Zane Paddon all scored 14 points apiece. For Okeke, that marked a career-high for the redshirt freshman. Paddon did his damage with four three-pointers.
- Jaelen Ragsdale led the Penguins with 17 points and shared the team lead with six rebounds.
- SF State won the rebounding battle 45-32.
The Gators held Dominican to just two points through the first six minutes of play. Meanwhile Balser scored the Gators' first six points as SF State built a quick 10-2 lead. Dominican pulled to within five but
Alex Manu dished to Paddon for a three-pointer that pushed the lead to 10 with 11 minutes to go in the half. The lead grew to 16 but Dominican kept it relatively close with a five-point run to close the half.
The Gators never led by fewer than double digits in the second half. Back-to-back Okeke layups with under 12 to go pushed the lead to 18 and another Paddon three-pointer made it a 21-point game with just under 10 minutes to play.
At the defensive end, Okeke came up with a steal, outlet to
Michael Diaz, and ran the court for a dunk that punctuated the victory and put the Gators up by their largest margin of the night at 23. A couple of minutes later, Acliese reached the 20-point mark with an offensive rebound and putback. For the second night in a row, Head Coach
Vince Inglima was able to empty the bench and played all 13 available players.
Head Coach Vince Inglima: "This team really plays hard, enjoys competing for each other, and is unselfish. Obviously, Linton was phenomenal but other guys contributed tonight who were different from last night. The journey is a lot more fun when you have quality guys who play as hard as this group."
The Gators will head north for the Ron Logsdon Basketball Classic, where SF State will face Alaska Anchorage on Friday, November 15 and Angelo State on Saturday, November 16. The Gators have never faced Angelo State and it will be just the fifth meeting with the Nanooks, who own a 4-1 all-time mark against the Gators. Both games will start at 5:30 p.m. in the Wolves Den on the campus of Sonoma State.
