HAYWARD, Calif. — The San Francisco State women's basketball team had first-place Cal State East Bay on its heels at halftime but the Gators were outscored by 21 in the second half in a 63-52 loss on Thursday night inside Pioneer Gymnasium.
- The Gators (1-13/1-10 CCAA) held the Pioneers (13-4/9-2 CCAA) to 3-of-24 (12.5 percent) shooting from deep.
- Samantha Erisman led all players with 15 points on 3-of-13 shooting. She had a pair of threes and seven her points came at the charity stripe.
- Giselle Mahinay added 13 points on 3-of-11 shooting in a starting role. She went 6-of-8 at the free throw line.
- The Gators' leading scorer, Taimane Lesa-Hardee, who was coming off a career-high 18 points, was held to just two points on 1-of-9 shooting.
- Jasmin Asher scored six points and grabbed four rebounds in her Gators debut.
- Faith Turner led CSUEB with a dozen points. Zane Duckett added 11 points. Morgan Greene led all players with 12 rebounds.
The Pioneers went 3-of-6 to start the game and jumped out to a 7-2 lead before Erisman hit a three and
Madison Corder tied the game at 7-7 with a pair of free throws midway through the quarter. The Gators went ahead on
Muirae Gomez's layup and the lead changed hands two more times before CSUEB's Regina Sankey's basket with 23 seconds left knotted the game at 13-13.
Lesa-Hardee's only bucket of the game came in the second quarter and put the Gators up 15-13 but CSUEB came right back to take an 18-17 advantage. The Gators held the Pioneers scoreless for nearly five minutes and went on an 11-0 run, punctuated by an Asher midrange jumper that put the Gators up 28-18.
Mahinay hit a step-back three to give SF State a 13-point lead but Kayley Hsiung answered right back to keep the difference at 10.
Cal State East Bay regrouped out of the locker room and used a 7-0 run in the first minute of the quarter to cut the Gators lead to 33-30. Corder slowed the run with a free throw but back-to-back jumpers tied the game at 34-34 with 6:33 to go. The Gators regained the lead on a pair of Erisman free throws and Mahinay caught the defense sleeping for an uncontested layup to build the lead back to four. However, the Pioneers got to the free throw line and inside for a layup to take a 41-40 lead with under two and a half to go in the quarter. The Gators never saw the lead again and trailed by four at the end of the third period.
SF State went down six to start the quarter but Asher hit a short corner jumper and drew a charge to keep it a two-possession ballgame. However the Gators, who remain shorthanded due to numerous injuries with third-leading scorer Ashley Hart the most recent addition to that list, ran out of steam in the fourth quarter and were outscored 14-7 the rest of the way.
The Gators head south to Cal State Monterey Bay on Saturday, January 18 for a 1 p.m. game. The game will be available for pay per view on the CCAA Network and free live stats will also be available at sfstategators.com.
