SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco State men's basketball team jumped out to a 24-4 lead and never trailed in a 78-63 win over Chico State on Saturday afternoon inside the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.
- The Gators have won four straight and five of their last seven games. SF State improves to 9-9 overall and to 5-7 in CCAA action, as well as 5-4 at home. The Wildcats slip to 8-9 overall and 6-6 in CCAA play.
- Jalen Flanagan matched a career-high 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Toby Okwuokei added 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting to go with six assists, five rebounds, and four steals. Jonah Roth scored 11 points with a pair of three-pointers and a team-high seven rebounds. Eche Okeke scored 10 points to go with four rebounds and three blocks.
- Seven different Gators contributed at the offensive end, with John Bakke adding seven and CJ Bellamy and Jake Paxton each chipping in six points.
- Evan Oliver led Chico State with 20 points. Miles Daniels and Kelvin Wright Jr. each added a dozen points and Justin Vigil finished with 11 in the loss.
- As a team, the Gators matched a season-high seven blocks and lead the CCAA with 3.28 per game.
- The Gators had their second-best shooting performance of the season on Saturday at 53.1 percent (26-of-49) from the field, including 46.7 percent (7-of-15) from deep.
- SF State held a slight 33-32 rebounding advantage.
The Wildcats tied the game at 4-4 early, then the Gators took over and went on a 20-0 run. The tone was set early by the tenacity of the Gators defense, which recorded three of the team's 12 steals in the first four minutes. Roth drained back-to-back threes, then Flanagan, Okeke, and Okwuokei all drove to the rim for layups. Okwuokei added an and-one, then scored another driving layup. Okeke had a layup and Paxton finished off the run with hist first of two three-pointers. The Wildcats cut the lead to nine with under two minutes to go in the first half but SF State kept them from scoring before halftime and pushed the lead back to 16. Flanagan hit a hook shot, Bakke laid one in, Flanagan made a free throw, and an Okeke steal led to a Flanagan buzzer-beater from Okwuokei.
In the second half, the Wildcats cut the lead to 52-44 with an 11-2 run over seven minutes while the Gators went scoreless for nearly four minutes. The Gators finally scored off a flop call against Joshua Hamilton. Roth made the free throw, and on the ensuing play, Paxton made a three-pointer from Okwuokei. Okwuokei and Jojo Murphy traded driving layups but Okwuokei found Roth at the rim for a dunk just ahead of the eight-minute mark and the Gators led by 14. SF State led by fewer than 12 after that and cruised the rest of the way.
"Today was the sharpest that we've been at the start of a game, mentally and physically. After an emotional week for our campus with wrestler Hamzah Alsaudi going missing this week after a swimming accident, we were very keyed in and I was proud of the focus and intensity that we brought. Defensively, we were off the charts," said Head Coach Vince Inglima. "Hank [Assistant Coach Henry Anyiam] had a fantastic game plan for today and we executed it really well. I'm really proud of the guys for that and Jalen Flanagan had a fantastic week. The work we've been putting in has been paying off."
The Gators hit the road for their next two games, Thursday, January 26 at Cal Poly Humboldt, and Saturday, January 28 at Sonoma State. Both games 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.
