SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco State men's basketball team earned another close win, 67-63 over Stanislaus State, on Thursday evening inside the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.
- The Gators are winners of three straight and four of their last six games. Of their last three wins, the Gators have won all three by four or less points. SF State improves to 8-9 overall and to 4-7 in CCAA action, as well as 4-4 at home. The Warriors slip to 7-10 overall and 5-6 in CCAA play.
- Jalen Flanagan led the Gators with 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting with eight rebounds. Caleb Oden added 12 points with five rebounds. Jonah Roth scored nine points, all on three-pointers. CJ Bellamy, Toby Okwuokei, and Jake Paxton all chipped in eight points apiece.
- Eche Okeke reeled in a game-high 10 rebounds, his fifth double-digit performance of the season.
- Marlon Short led all players with 18 points for the Warriors. Travion Williams added 13 points and Kobe Ordonio added 10 points in the loss.
- SF State had its best shooting night since November. The Gators shot 47.2 percent (25-of-53) from the field. The team's 47.6 percent (10-of-21) shooting from distance was the second best of the season. Conversely, the Gators held Stan State to its worst three-point performance of the season at just 14.3 percent (3-of-21).
The Gators overcame a slow start that saw them go scoreless until the 14-minute mark when Flanagan got things going with a three-pointer. SF State trailed until the eight-minute mark when
John Bakke dished to Oden for another three-pointer, one of the team's seven in the first half. Down one, Bakke drove to the rim for a layup that gave the Gators their first lead of the night with 5:45 to go in the half, and Roth followed with back-to-back threes for a seven-point Gators advantage. The lead grew to 11 by the end of the half.
An Okwuokei layup with 16:42 to go in the second half gave the Gators their largest lead of the night at 16, though that lead dissipated over the next four minutes on a 12-4 Warriors run. The Gators grew the lead back to as large as 15 and still led by 10 with a minute to go, yet were forced to stave off a late Stan State run. The Warriors scored eight unanswered points in the final minute. Paxton iced the game with a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining.
"This group has been working really hard and competing practice and it's nice to get a reward with three in a row. We started slow and found a rythym. Credit to some of our bench guys for coming in and giving us big minutes and helping us get back on track. It's always nice to see guys who have put in a lot of time to get that opportunity," said Head Coach Vince Inglima. "It was also fantastic to see the lid come off the rim tonight. We've been struggling for a while and we're a team that's capable of shooting it well, so to see that tonight with four different guys making multiple threes is a really good sign for us moving forward."
The Gators host Chico State (8-8/6-5 CCAA) on Saturday, January 21 at 3 p.m. Tickets are available at sfstategators.com/tickets. The game will be broadcast on the CCAA Network with live stats available at sfstategators.com. In-game updates will also available on Twitter at @sfstate_mbb.
