SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco State men's basketball fell into a hole early and never recovered in an 80-62 loss to Cal State East Bay on Saturday night in the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.
- Linton Acliese III scored a team-high 16 points and grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
- Eche Okeke added a dozen points and six rebounds in the loss.
- The Gators (5-5/2-2 CCAA) won the rebounding battle 41-30. Nineteen of those were offensive rebounds, which resulted in 17 second-chance points.
- SF State committed a season-high 23 turnovers and a season-low five assists.
- Josh Dhatt and Ant Navarrete scored a game-high 19 points apiece for Cal State East Bay (7-3/3-1 CCAA). Dhatt did so on 7-of-8 shooting and had 14 points at the half. Zafir Williams had 10 points at the half and finished with 16 for the Pioneers.
- SF State held to a 22 points in the first half, the lowest scoring output in a quarter by SF State this season.
- The Gators were just 1-of-11 from deep in the first half and that didn't improve in the second half, as the Gators went 1-of-9 to finish at 10 percent for the game. In contrast, the Pioneers made 42.9 percent (9-of-21) of their attempts from deep.
After over three minutes of scoreless basketball, Paddon started the scoring with a teardrop in the paint but Cal State East Bay answered with back-to-back baskets and stepped on the gas and out to a 21-4 lead. The Gators countered with a 10-2 run but still trailed 23-14 at the eight-minute media timeout. The Gators worked their way to into the bonus but nine first-half turnovers resulted in nine Pioneers points. Three of those turnovers were committed by Acliese, who was double-teamed nearly every possession. One of his turnovers resulted in a Dhatt fast-break dunk that pushed the Pioneers lead back to 16. Nai Carlisle and Wyatt Maker extended the lead further, to 22, with a pair of three-pointers and Dhatt hit a corner three-pointer with four seconds left, then stole the inbounds pass for an easy layup and a 25-point Pioneers lead.
Alex Manu followed his own shot for a rebound and one, then got a steal and fast break layup to pull the Gators to within 20.
The deficit ballooned back to 29 with just under 13 minutes to play, but the Gators pieced together another run that cut the lead back down to 20.
DJ Sylvester's shot in the lane cut the lead to 16 with 5:37 to go but an easy cherry pick for Dhatt killed the Gators' momentum. A few minutes later,
Sean Orr hit a three in front of the SF State bench to pull the Gators to within 15.
Acliese hit a pair of free throws to make it a 12-point game with 2:12 to go but the Gators ran out of steam. A turnover and Pioneer free throws put the game out of reach.
SF State heads north to Humboldt State on Thursday, December 12 at 7:30 p.m. The game will be streamed for a cost on the CCAA Network and live stats will also be available for free at sfstategators.com.
