SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco State men's basketball team finished the season on a positive note with a 102-82 victory over Cal State LA.
- The Gators (9-18/6-15 CCAA) may have played spoiler for Cal State LA (10-17/7-14 CCAA), who ended the Gators' season a year ago. The Golden Eagles must await the result of the Cal State Monterey Bay and Cal Poly Pomona game.
- Six Gators scored in double digits, led by Jordan Balser. The senior went for a season-high 27 points, four shy of his career mark, with six three-pointers.
- Senior Tyler Jackson finished his career with a double-double. He scored a career-high 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
- Linton Acliese III also had a double-double with 10 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Acliese finishes his first season with the Gators with 17.9 points per game, third highest in the CCAA, and with 7.6 rebounds per game, fifth best in the conference.
- Senior Jase Wickliffe finished with 13 points, and fellow seniors Zane Paddon and DJ Sylvester both went for 10 points apiece.
- SF State honored its six seniors prior to the game - Balser, Jackson, Kenny Macklin, Paddon, Sylvester, and Wickliffe.
- Wickliffe, a four-year varsity player, made his 107th career appearance, which is tied for sixth all-time in program history.
- SF State shot 52.2 percent (35-of-67) from the field.
- The Gators outrebounded the Golden Eagles 50-22.
Cal State LA jumped out to an 8-2 lead but the Gators scored the next nine points, punctuated by a Balser three-pointer, to take an 11-8 lead. From there, the Gators led the rest of the way and went to the half 39-37. Cal State LA trimmed the lead to two but the Gators answered yet again with an Orr three and
Jacob Huynh steal and layup.
A Balser three-pointer with 10 minutes to go pushed the lead to 11. The Golden Eagles again chipped away and trimmed the lead to a two-possesion game.
Paddon and Huynh both hit threes and Acliese pushed the lead back to double digits with a putback with six minutes to go. That forced a Cal State LA timeout but it didn't slow the Gators. Paddon hit another jumper and Balser hit a three that extended the lead to 16.
The Gators were in cruise control the rest of the way and Wickliffe hit a free throw with 40 seconds left to cross the century-mark.
Alex Manu added a layup with 20 seconds remaining for good measure.
The Golden Eagles knotted the game at 41-41 and went ahead 44-43 on Fard Muhammad's three-pointer at the 17-minute mark. Down one, Wickliffe and
Sean Orr hit back-to-back threes to put the Gators back up by five.
