Jonah Roth had a game-high 22 points in Saturday's loss.
Box Score SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco State men's basketball team scored 13 points in the final minute but its comeback effort came up short in an 83-81 loss to Cal Poly Humboldt on Saturday afternoon inside the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.
- The Gators slip to 5-9 overall and 1-7 in conference action. Cal Poly Humboldt moves to 8-6 overall and 6-2 in CCAA action, tied for second place.
- Jonah Roth was the game's top scorer with 22 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Roth leads the Gators, averaging 12 points per game.
- Jalen Flanagan finished with 15 points and Eche Okeke added 10 points in the loss.
- Malek Davis and Marlon Ruffin finished with 20 points apiece for the Lumberjacks. Cam Timmons added a dozen points.
- Despite being outsized inside, SF State outrebounded Humboldt 41-27 and grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, which led to 20 second-chance points.
- Twenty-three turnovers proved costly for SF State, as the Lumberjacks converted those into 24 points.
After SF State scored twice quickly off of turnovers, the Lumberjacks scorched the nets in the first half. Humboldt went 59.4 percent (19-of-32) while the Gators shot 38.7 percent (12-of-31). The Gators led 19-17 but the Lumberjacks used a six-point run to gain control. Jack Paxton connected with Pearce Uniacke to keep things close but the Gators couldn't catch up. Down five with 3:26 to go in the half, the Lumberjacks went on a 9-0 run to push their lead to 12, and a Ruffin three-pointer in the final seconds sent SF State into the locker room trailing 47-32.
Humboldt State scored on the first two possession of the second half and grew their lead to as much as 20 in the second half. The Gators stuck around and made things interesting and trailed by nine headed into the eight-minute media timeout. Flanagan got a layup and Roth slipped backdoor for a layup that cut the deficit to five. Humboldt pushed its lead back to nine but
CJ Bellamy kept it a two-possession game with his three-pointer with 1:46 to go. The Gators still trailed by eight with under 30 seconds to go but SF State kept battling. Bellamy hit Roth for a three-pointer at the 11-second mark and a Bellamy steal set up a Flanagan three-pointer that made it a two-point ballgame with five seconds to go. The Gators fouled Davis, who only made one free throw. Okeke made a football pass but threw it too high and out of bounds at the opposite baseline. The Gators were forced to foul again and Ruffin hit both to make it a five-point game with two seconds to go. Okeke threw another football pass and connected with
Caleb Oden, who nailed a three to make it 83-81 but the Lumberjacks got the ball in and allowed time to expire.
The Gators hit the road for their next two games. SF State heads to Hayward on Thursday, January 12 to take on cross-bay rival Cal State East Bay at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, January 14, SF State heads to Cal State Dominguez Hills for a 3 p.m. game in Carson. 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.
