SEASIDE, Calif. — Linton Acliese III's bank shot with 20 seconds remaining turned out to be the game-winner as the San Francisco State men's basketball team defeated Cal State Monterey Bay 74-72 on Saturday afternoon at the Otter Athletics Complex.
- The Gators (8-10/5-7 CCAA) are winners of three straight. With Cal State San Marcos losing on Saturday, the Gators stand in a three-way tie for seventh and a game out of sixth place.
- Zane Paddon led the Gators with a season-high 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 4-of-7 from deep.
- Acliese poured in 15 points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
- Jordan Balser was 5-of-10 from the field and finished with 12 points.
- Jahvon Johnson led all players with 18 points in the loss for the Otters. Andrew Ferguson added a double-double with 17 points and 14 points. Damian Wilson chipped in 11 points.
- Coming off its second lowest free throw percentage of the season, SF State rebounded nicely with a season-best 21-of-23 (91.3 percent) at the charity stripe.
- The free throws offset a 44-33 rebounding advantage by the Otters that resulted in 23 second-chance points.
Jacob Huynh dished to Balser for a jumper and got the scoring started but San Francisco State fell behind 8-2. Balser stopped the bleeding with another jumper but the Otters hit four of their next five shots to take an 18-4 lead. The Gators cut the lead to eight with under 10 to go on another make by Balser. Johnson and Ferguson hit back-to-back shots and pushed the lead back to a dozen, and the Otters advantage grew to as large as 16.
SF State prevented the Otters from making a field goal over the final two minutes of the half and finished on a 7-0 run that cut the lead at intermission to seven, 42-35.
Jase Wickliffe started the half with a pair of buckets and Balser hit another jumper to pull the Gators to within one with just under 17 and a half to go.
DJ Sylvester drew a foul with 16:56 on the clock and made both free throws to put SF State up by one, 43-42. The lead changed hand 10 times over the next eight minutes. Trailing by one with nine minutes to play, the Gators made their next six free throws to grab a five-point advantage. The Gators grew the lead to nine just before the four-minute media timeout on an Acliese jumper. However, the Otters hit back-to-back-to-back three pointers that knotted the game at 72-72 with 1:29 to go. Both teams missed shots to go ahead until, with 20 seconds left, Acliese banked in a shot from the right side that put the Gators up for good.
The Otters called timeout with 13 seconds left and Ferguson missed a three-pointer with six seconds on the clock. Acliese grabbed the rebound and was fouled. His first missed free throw of the night came at an inopportune time but Charlie Tooley's last-second three-point attepmt was off the mark and the Gators held on.
The Gators host first-place UC San Diego on Thursday, January 23, followed by Cal State San Marcos on Saturday, January 25. Both games will be streamed on the CCAA Network and live stats will be available at sfstategators.com.
