OAKLAND, Calif. — The San Francisco State men's basketball team had four players in double figures as the Gators held on for an 87-83 road win at Holy Names on Friday evening inside a packed Tobin Gymnasium.

By the Numbers

• The Gators (2-3) have are 7-0 all-time versus Holy Names dating back to their first meeting in 1996. The two teams last met in in January 2018.
• SF State had by far its best shooting performance of the season at 55.6 percent (30-of-54), including 56.5 percent (13-of-23) from deep.
• The Gators had four Gators in double figures for the first time since January 2020. Travis August led SF State with 24 points with five three-pointers, Jalen Chandler poured in 20 points, Toby Okwuokei came on late for 15 points, and Jalen Flanagan finished with 10 points.
• Friday marked the first time SF State had two players with 20 or more points since a 90-82 win over Cal State LA on Jan. 13, 2018. Warren Jackson had 27 points and Brantley Bynum had 22.
• Sean Orr grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
• Damiri Lindo led the Hawks (1-4) with 25 points. Edward Gray added 22 points and Roman Behrens chipped in 14 points in the loss.
• HNU's Babacar Thiombane led all players with 11 rebounds.

How it Happened

The Gators jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first three minutes and held HNU scoreless until 16:42. The Gators made five of their first six buckets and drew three offensive fouls at the other end to control the game. The Hawks trimmed the lead to six after a Gators turnover led to an HNU three-point play. Another Gators turnover led to a transition three for the Hawks. Gray made two of three free throws to pull HNU within a point but August answered at the other end. The guard rolled off a screen for a corner three, then buried a three from the opposite corner on the next trip down to keep the Gators up five. Chandler knocked down a couple of threes of his own to keep the Gators in front, though HNU trimmed the lead to four at the half.

Holy Names jumped on the Gators out of the locker room and tied the game at 45-45 at 17:50. From there, the Gators went on a 6-0 run, only to see Holy Names answer with a 9-0 run that forced Head Coach Vince Inglima to call timeout. The deficit crew to five but another pair of August threes kept the game close. With 11 and a half minutes to play, Jacob Huynh hit a trailing Chandler in stride for a pull-up jumper to put the Gators back on top, 59-58. The lead bounced back and forth and the game was knotted at 81-81 with 1:55 remaining. The Gators grabbed an offensive rebound and called another timeout with 1:34 to go. Okwuokei dribbled in front of the Gators bench and drained a step-back three as the shot clock expired, giving the Gators the lead for good with 1:11 to go. Okwuokei made a pair of free throws and Flanagan made the first of two free throws to make it a two-possession game with less than 10 seconds to play.
 

Quotables

"I'm really proud of the team's effort tonight through a full 40 minutes. We continued to fight possession in and possession out and came up with a result," said Inglima. "We have not been shooting well but we've stuck with it and we continued to share the ball and that really ignited us at the offensive end. Jalen and Travis are elite-level shooters who broke out tonight and I expect more big games from those guys moving forward."
 

Up Next

SF State heads back to Oakland on Saturday, November 27 for a 5 p.m. contest versus Fresno Pacfic (5-0). The game will be broadcast by Holy Names with live stats available at sfstategators.com. Live updates will also be provided on the SF State Men's Basketball Twitter account, @sfstate_mbb.