SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco State men's basketball team's playoff hopes were extinguished in an 82-67 loss to Cal State Dominguez Hills on Thursday night inside the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.
- With Thursday's loss, the Gators (9-18/6-15 CCAA) were eliminated from postseason contention and saw a four-year postseason streak snapped. The Toros (13-14/9-12) can control their own destiny with a win on Saturday.
- DJ Sylvester scored a team-high 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting and 7-of-8 free throw shooting.
- Jase Wickliffe added 12 points and Linton Acliese III scored 11 points and had a team-high six rebounds.
- For the second time this season, the Toros' Colten Kresl went for 38 points. He did so on an efficient 10-of-19 with eight threes and was a perfect 10-of-10 from the line. No other Toro reached double digits. Kaden Bradley led all players with eight rebounds.
- The Toros scored 41 points in each half. The Gators shot just 24 percent (6-of-25) shooting in the first half compared to 44.1 percent (15-of-34) in the second half and outscored CSUDH 42-41 in the second half.
Tied 4-4, Kresl scored five straight for the Toros. The Gators answered right back with a pair of
DJ Sylvester free throws and swung the ball to
Jase Wickliffe for a corner three.
The Gators went up a point on a
Tyler Jackson free throw but a pair of sloppy passes by Sylvester and Diaz led to a pair of fast-break layups for the Toros. The deficit slipped to eight but the Gators pulled back to within four on a Sylvester putback. The Toros swung the ball at the other end for a wide-open corner three and saw their lead grow to double digits with three and a half minutes to go. Andrew Whitsett followed his own shot with a second to go that beat the buzzer and sent the Toros into the break with a 41-25 lead. The Gators started the half with an Acliese give-and-go to Wickliffe as the Gators kept pace with the Toros. Down 49-37 at the 15-minute mark, Sylvester drew a foul and Kaden Bradley picked up a technical foul for using profanity. Sylvester went 3-of-4 at the line and, on next trip down, hit a mid-range jumper to pull the Gators to within eight.
Ojunkwu Armstrong slowed the Gators run with a baseline dunk but Huynh lobbed an alley-oop to Sylvester to cut the lead to five. Down six, Kresl hit back-to-back threes for the Toros, followed by a Whitsett layup that pushed the deficit to 14. CSUDH continued to push the lead and got the lead to 71-51 on a Gabriel Hicks layup with just over five minutes to go. A 7-0 run with a couple of minutes left pulled the Gators to within 13 but a couple of Toros free throws pushed the gap to 15.
The Gators will look to play spoiler versus Cal State LA on Saturday, February 29 at 3 p.m. and all fans in attedance will receive a #BeatLA cheer card. Prior to the game, SF State will honor the team's six seniors,
Jordan Balser,
Tyler Jackson,
Kenny Macklin,
Zane Paddon,
DJ Sylvester, and
Jase Wickliffe. The game will be streamed on the
CCAA Network and live stats will also be available at
sfstategators.com.
