SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco State men's basketball team climbed out of a 19-point deficit and forced overtime but came up short, 94-89, to visiting Cal State Dominguez Hills on Thursday evening inside the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.
- San Francisco State slips to 9-8 overall and 2-6 in CCAA play while the Toros move to 11-3 overall and are in a three-way tie for second place in the CCAA at 6-2.
- John Bakke and Caleb Oden led the Gators with 16 points apiece. Bakke was 7-of-11 from the field and had at team-high six rebounds, a pair of assists, two steals, and a block. Oden did so on 6-of-8 shooting to go with five rebounds and four assists.
- Jonah Roth added 14 points with four three-pointers and CJ Bellamy added 10 points in the loss.
- Andre Ball led all players with 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Jakob Alamundun added 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Alex Garcia added 14 points and shared the team lead with Jayden Winfrey with six rebounds apiece. DJ Guest rounded out Toros in double digits with a dozen points.
- The Gators were whistled for 30 fouls with Oden fouling out and three others with four fouls. The Toros combined for 15 fouls with every player who entered committing at least one foul.
- CSUDH held a 36-29 rebounding advantage.
The Gators went up 6-2 early on three Tyjean Burrell free throws and a Cooks step-back three but the Toros ripped off an 18-2 run. CSUDH went up by as much as 19 before the Gators cut it back to single digits. A Roth three-pointer inside the four-minute mark cut the lead to seven but the Toros rattled off the next eight points to push their lead back to 15 and eventually took a 45-30 advantage into halftime.
SF State continued to chip away in the second half. The Gators used a 10-0 run to trim the lead to four inside ten minutes. After a pair of Decon Jackson free throws, an Alec Smith defensive rebound led to a Bellamy three. A few possessions later, Bakke crashed the offensive glass for a putback, Jackson had a layup, and Bellamy capped off the run with a free throw. Bakke pulled the Gators to within one after a steal that led to a three-pointer with 4:21 to play.
CSUDH went back up by five but a Bakke free throw with 1:09 trimmed the lead back to one. His second free throw would have tied the game but the ball rimmed out, then Ball answered with a three-pointer in front of his own bench. Roth answered with a three of his own with 25.4 seconds to go. The Gators fouled and Alex Garcia missed his first free throw. With six seconds to go, Bakke drove to the rim for the layup and tied the game at 78-78.
Oden got a dunk off of the opening tip in overtime but that was the last the Gators would lead as the Toros scored the next six points.
Bellamy kept it close with a three-pointer but the Toros drew another foul to push the lead to five with 1:14 to go.
Alex Gilat's three-pointer made it 89-86 but Garcia made both of his free throws in overtime and Ball had a dunk to put the game out of reach.
The Gators wrap up the five-game homestand versus No. 21 Cal State LA on January 13 at 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the CCAA Network with live stats available at sfstategators.com, as well as updates on X at @sfstate_mbb. Tickets are available at sfstategators.com/tickets.
