OAKLAND, Calif. — Coming off of its best shooting performance of the season, the San Francisco State men's basketball team struggled offensively in an 86-63 loss to Fresno Pacific on Saturday night inside Tobin Gymnasium.

By the Numbers

• Eche Okeke tallied a career-high 15 points and notched his first career double-double with a career-high 12 rebounds.
• Travis August added 11 points and Jalen Chandler finished with 11 points.
• FPU (6-0) shot 52.5 percent (31-of-59) from the field, the highest percentage allowed by the Gators this season.
• SF State had more shot attempts than FPU but shot just 34.8 percent (23-of-66), including 24 percent (6-of-25) from deep.
• Jelani Watson-Gayle led all players with 17 points for the Sunbirds. Nate Kendricks added 15 points and DJ Searcy scored 10 points.
• SF State won the rebounding battle, 41-34.

How it Happened

The Sunbirds scored a three-point play for the game's first score and the lead never changed hands again. The Gators trailed by three with six and a half minutes to go in the half but the Sunbirds rattled off an 11-0 run to grow their advantage to 14. The Gators trailed 40-24 at the half and were shooting just 21.1 percent at intermission.

The Gators matched the Sunbirds in the first seven minutes of the second half but FPU widened its lead with back-to-back threes from Watson-Gayle, and a triple from Ryan Abbott. Mikey Robinson Jr. answered with a three-ball of his own but the Sunbirds kept hitting threes. Kendricks hit a three at the nine-minute mark to extend the lead to 22 and the deficit grew to as large as 29. SF State finished on a 7-1 run over the last two minutes.
 

Quotables

"Tonight was the first game where we clearly didn't start with enough energy. Credit to an excellent FPU team for beating us, but I don't think this effort is reflective of who we are as a team," said Head Coach Vince Inglima. "We will grow from this as we prepare for CCAA play next week."
 

Up Next

SF State heads into CCAA action next week. The Gators head to Humboldt State on Thursday, December 2 and to Sonoma State on Saturday, December 4. Both games 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.