ISLA VISTA, Calif. — The San Francisco State men's basketball team ran up against a powerhouse UC Santa Barbara squad on Wednesday night in exhibition play, falling 119-65 inside The Thunderdome.

By the Numbers

 

• Wednesday was the two teams' first meeting since December 6, 1997.
• SF State was led by Jacob Huynh and Jalen Chandler with 11 points apiece. Jalen Flanagan added 10 points in the effort.
• The Gauchos were led by Amadou Sow and Josh Pierre-Louis with 25 points apiece. Twenty-two of Pierre-Louis' points came in the first half. Sow, named to the 2021-22 Preseason All-Big West Coaches' Team, had 14 first-half points.
• Miles Norris, also named to the 2021-22 Preseason All-Big West Coaches' Team, was held to two points in the first half after getting into foul trouble early, but finished with 14 points.
• Sean Orr had a team-high seven rebounds for the Gators. Robinson Idehen led all players with 11.
• The Gators shot just 27.6 percent (21-of-76) from the field while the Gauchos torched the nets on 62.5 percent (40-of-64) shooting, including 43.8 percent (7-of-16) from beyond the arc.
• UCSB dominated the glass 65-27.
• The Gauchos are coming off a 22-5 season in which they won the Big West and fell by a point, 63-62, to Creighton in the NCAA Tournament.
• UCSB was unanimously picked first in the 2021-22 Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll and 201-22 Big West Preseason Media Poll.

How it Happened

The Gators were in it early thanks to a Flanagan finger roll and a steal and dunk from Jalen Chandler, who gave the Gators a brief lead. The Gauchos had a steal and dunk of their own but Flanagan drew a goaltending call to keep the Gators within a point. SF State trailed 7-6 at the first media timeout but UCSB came out of the huddle and fired off a 6-0 run. Travis August hit a deep three to cut the lead to 17-13 but the Gauchos answered with 11 uncontested points to widen the gap to 28-13 and force a Gators timeout. The Gauchos finished the half making nine of their last 10 field goals and led 60-33 at the half.

Chandler drained a three-ball to start the second half but it was all Gauchos from there. Alex Gilat had a couple of late threes but the Gauchos reached the century-mark with 6:30 to go and never looked back.
 

Quotables

"The travel and game last night showed in our lack of legs against a really good Gauchos team," said Head Coach Vince Inglima. "We will look to turn the page on our exhibition games and take the lessons learned into the weekend. I'm proud of our overall effort this week."
 

Up Next

The Gators host the San Francisco State Tip-Off Classic on Saturday, November 13 and Sunday, November 14 featuring Academy of Art, Dominican, and Sonoma State. The Gators open the season versus Academy of Art at 2 p.m. on Saturday and tip-off versus Dominican at 4 p.m. on Sunday. Sonoma State also plays those two teams. All four games of the Classic will be broadcast on the CCAA Network with live stats available at sfstategators.com. Live updates will also be provided on the SF State Men's Basketball Twitter account, @sfstate_mbb.