SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco State men's basketball team made a valiant comeback effort but couldn't overcome a season-high 25 turnovers in a 67-62 loss to visiting Chico State on Thursday evening inside the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.
- Chico State improves to 9-2 and 4-2 in CCAA play while SF State drops to .500 on the season at 7-7 and to 1-5 in CCAA play.
- Caleb Oden and Devon Jackson led the Gators with 10 points apiece. Tyjean Burrell and Jailen Daniel-Dalton both scored eight points and John Bakke and Pearse Uniacke each scored seven points in the loss.
- Evan Oliver led all players with 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting for the Wildcats. Kelvin Wright Jr. added 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting and Miles Daniels chipped in a dozen points.
- The Gators outrebounded the Wildcats 33-27, led by guard Donovan Cooks with eight.
- SF State also had a better shooting percentage (44.7 percent, 21-of-47; 36.4 percent from deep on 8-of-22 shooting) than Chico State (41.1 percent, 23-of-56; 29.6 percent from deep on 8-of-27 shooting).
The Gators committed seven turnovers in the first five minutes and 13 in the first half and never recovered. That led to seven more shot attempts and 17 second-chance points for the Wildcats, resulting in a 40-20 halftime lead for the visitors. The Gators opened the second half on a 20-9 run, which was sparked by consecutive highlight-reel plays. Burrell had a side inbounds lob to Uniacke, who caught the ball for the layup. Then, Bakke stole the ball near midcourt and took it himself for the slam dunk.
The Gators eventually cut the lead to nine when Bakke skipped the ball to the corner, where Jackson buried a three in front of the Gators bench with 13:20 to go.
SF State continued to chip away and got the deficit down to eight. However, the Wildcats countered, capped by Evan Oliver's four-point play that pushed the lead back to 14. Daniel-Dalton reentered and immediately scored on a three-point play, and an Oden three-pointer in transition cut the lead back to eight with four minutes to go. Burrell drove the lane and Caden Harris reached in for his fifth foul with 1:21 remaining. That sent Burrell to the line, who made both to pull the Gators to within seven. Cooks cut it to four with 21.3 seconds with a three-pointer but the Gators were forced to foul and Joshua Hamilton made one of two free throws with 15 seconds remaining and a couple of last-ditch shots didn't fall for the Gators.
The five-game CCAA homestand continues on Saturday, January 6 at 3 p.m. when the Gators host Cal Poly Humboldt (3-8/0-6 CCAA). The game will be broadcast on the CCAA Network with live stats will be available at sfstategators.com, as well as updates on X at @sfstate_mbb. Tickets are available at sfstategators.com/tickets.
