TURLOCK, Calif. — The San Francisco State men's basketball team saw its season come to a close on Thursday in a close 74-71 loss to Chico State in the CCAA Men's Basketball Tournament quarterfinal game.
- With the loss, the third-seeded Gators finish at 16-13. The Wildcats (13-15) live another day to face second-seeded Cal State San Marcos on Friday.
- Senior Toby Okwuokei kept SF State in the game with a season-high 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
- Fellow senior Jalen Flanagan finished with 15 points and five rebounds.
- Eche Okeke was limited by foul trouble. The senior picked his third foul of the game with 2:21 remaining in the first half and fouled out on an offensive foul with 4:30 to go in the game. He finished with six points. Okeke, who led the team with 29.1 minutes per game, played a smidge under 20 minutes on Thursday.
- CJ Bellamy added nine points and John Bakke had eight points and six rebounds.
- The Gators were edge 36-35 on the boards. Pearse Uniacke led the Gators with a career-high seven.
- Evan Oliver led the Wildcats with 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
- Joshua Hamilton added 16 points and Jojo Murphy finished with 11.
- Kelvin Wright Jr. finished with six points and a game-high 11 rebounds before fouling out with 1:06 to go.
Joshua Hamilton hit the first bucket of the game but the Gators went up two minutes later. Neither team lead by more than four until the eight-minute mark when the Wildcats went up 20-15 on a Miles Daniels jumper. The Wildcats grew their lead to another point over the next two minutes and a Wheeler three pointer grew the lead to seven. The Gators stayed in in though thanks to a pair of Bellamy three-pointers in the final minute that kept the deficit at 34-32 headed into halftime.
Okwuokei picked up his third foul with 19:03 to go in the second half and the Gators went down six, though he didn't commit another foul the rest of the way. The deficit grew to eight at 16:35 on a Vigil hook shot. Okeke answered with a three to keep it a two-possession game but Murphy answered with a three of his own that pushed it back to eight. Okeke was whistled for his fourth foul in transition with 14:24 to go and the Gators trailed by eight at that point. Trae Taylor scored on a layup on the following possession and the Wildcats pushed their lead to 10. Okwuokei did a little bit of everything for the Gators. His steal at midcourt and layup cut it to four but Wildcats answered right back. He kept up the intensity though and scored with a drive and spun to the rim for another bucket to keep the deficit at four.
The Gators trailed 62-54 at the final media timeout, and a pair of
Caleb Oden free throws and a
Jalen Flanagan three-pointer cut the lead to three with three to go. Inside two minutes, Murphy was stripped by Oden and Flanagan finished an and-one at the other end to make it 65-62 with 1:37 to go. Oden then grabbed a defensive rebound and was fouled by Wright Jr. with 1:06 to go but only made his second free throw to make it 65-63. Hamilton hit a three-pointer with 41.3 seconds, then Okwuokei answered with a corner-three off a broken play that cut the lead to two.
The Gators fouled and a pair of Wildcats free throws made it 70-66. Bakke got to the rim for an easy layup with 11.3 seconds to go but the Gators were forced to foul. Flanagan mae a second-chance three-pointer that cut the lead to one but a pair of Oliver free throws iced the game.
