SAN FRANCISCO — Donovan Cooks scored the last five points of the game as the San Francisco State men's basketball team bested Cal Poly Humboldt 60-57 on Saturday afternoon inside the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.
- San Francisco State improves to 9-7 and 2-5 in CCAA play while the Lumberjacks fall to 3-8 and six games into the conference schedule, remain in search of their first CCAA victory.
- Cooks led the Gators with 11 points on three three-pointers and the final two free throws of the game. Jonah Roth added 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
- John Bakke, Tyjean Burrell, and Jailen Daniel-Dalton all chipped in seven points apiece.
- Rob Diaz led all players with 20 points for the Lumberjacks. Ramie Adedigba added 19 points in the loss.
- SF State committed just seven turnovers, the fewest this season versus a Division II opponent. The Gators also forced 11 turnovers, which they converted into 14 points.
- The Lumberjacks won the rebounding battle, 44-31, and had 17 second-chance points.
The Lumberjacks opened with the game's first four-points but the Gators took control of the game with an 11-1 run. At the same time, the Gators defense held Cal Poly Humboldt to seven missed field goal attempts. With nine minutes to go, Cooks hit a three-pointer from the top of the key to make it 19-7.
A few possession later, Cooks connected with
Pearse Uniacke on a nice alley-oop, though Uniacke departed with a foot injury shortly after.
The Lumberjacks cut the lead to eight with 1:30 left in the half on a banked corner three-pointer by Adedigba. The Gators took a timeout and finished on a 5-2 run to rebuild the lead to double digits by halftime. The Lumberjacks made it interesting in the second half. SF State grew the lead to 14 but saw the lead cut in half over a four-minute span. The Gators called another timeout with 13:01 to go after Cal Timmons' tip-in cut the lead to 40-33. The Lumberjacks then used a 5-0 run to pull to within a bucket with just over ten minutes to go. The Gators caught a break when a Diaz layup rimmed out and Roth answered at the other end with an easy slip and on the feed from
Devon Jackson. Jackson scored a couple of buckets to keep the Lumberjacks at arm's length but they pulled to within two, 49-47, when Diaz hit a three-pointer in transition. Adedigba made it a one-point game with the front end of a 1-and-1 but Jackson made the extra pass to find Burrell, who had time to set his feet and answer with a big three-pointer.
Jailen-Dalton and Diaz traded threes, and the Lumberjacks tied the game with 1:36 to go on Sage Wayan's layup. The Lumberjacks then took the lead with just over a minute to go on a Timmons layup but Cooks pulled up and buried the wide-open three for a 58-57 lead, then made it a three-point game with two free throws. A last-ditch three-pointer from Brandon Bento-Jackson went off the back of the rim.
The Gators wrap up the five-game homestand next week when Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State LA come calling on January 11 and 13, respectively. The games 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.
