SAN FRANCISCO – A sluggish second half doomed the San Francisco State men's basketball team in a 59-51 home loss to Sonoma State on Thursday evening inside the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.
- SF State shot just 35.2 percent (19-of-54 from the field) while the Seawolves shot slightly higher at 39.2 percent (20-of-51).
- The Gators slip to last place in the CCAA standings at 5-8 overall and 1-6 in conference action. The Seawolves, winners of six of their last seven, moves to 6-7 overall and sits in a three-way tie for second place at 5-2 in CCAA action.
- Jonah Roth led SF State with 16 points. Freshman point guard CJ Bellamy added eight points in a starting role. The Gators' three seniors – Jalen Flanagan, Eche Okeke, and Toby Okwuokei – were quiet offensively and combined for just 12 points. Okwuokei led the Gators with seven rebounds.
- Jaylen Wells led all players with 23 points and 13 rebounds for the Seawolves, his fifth double-double of the season. Nick Klarman added 15 points.
- The Gators, who have posted a positive rebounding differential, struggled in a category they typically dominate. The Seawolves outworked the Gators on the glass 41-28.
- SF State was limited to 23 points in the second half, their lowest second-half output of the season.
The teams traded the lead early on and the Gators led by half a dozen at one point. SF State led 28-27 on a
Jake Paxton three in transition at the two-minute mark but Julian Bryant's bucket sent the Seawolves into the locker room with a 29-28 advantage.
Bellamy and
Caleb Oden hit a couple of three-pointers to give the Gators a 34-33. SF State held a one-point lead with 12 minutes to play but Bryant knocked down a couple of free throws to give SSU a one-point lead of its own. Klarman got to the line for a couple of free throws, then he hit a three-pointer and the Seawolves suddenly led by six. Okwuokei and Roth trimmed a seven-point lead to two with a layup and a transition three-pointer but four SSU free throws stretched the lead back to six as the Gators went scoreless over the final three minutes.
"Our offensive struggles continue. We did make some threes but then we went 10-for-31 from two. We just can't seem to connect on both of those on the same day," said Head Coach Vince Inglima. "We defended well enough to hold them to 59 points but they really won the possession game and they outrebounded us, they beat us to a lot of loose balls, which are a couple of facets that we've been pretty consistently good at and weren't tonight."
The Gators host Cal Poly Humboldt in a men's and women's doubleheader. Due to Cal Poly Humboldt's travel being impacted by the recent storms, the men are scheduled to play the first game at 3 p.m. with the women to follow at 5 p.m. 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, pending platform availability.
