SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco State men's basketball team opened CCAA action with a 74-71 victory over Cal State East Bay on Saturday afternoon inside the Main Gym at Don Nasser Family Plaza.
- SF State improves to 3-4 and 1-0 in CCAA play while Cal State East Bay slips to 1-4 overall and 0-1 in CCAA action.
- Tyjean Burrell led SF State with 18 points on 7-of-10. Caleb Oden added 14 points and John Bakke scored 13 points in the victory.
- Oden led all players with six rebounds as SF State won the rebounding battle, 32-24.
- The Pioneers' Teiano Hardee led all players with 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Beril Kabamba added 16 points, Ramsey Huff added 12 points, and Payden White scored 11.
- The Gators shot a season-high 52.3 percent (23-of-44), including 42.9 percent (6-of-14) from deep.
Bakke started the game with the first three points for the Gators but the Pioneers countered and took a seven-point lead with 15:29 to go. Alex Gilat grabbed a rebound and hit a transition three to pull the Gators to within two, then SF State capitalized on a Pioneers turnover and took the lead on Devon Jackson's three-pointer on the following possession. The lead grew to as large as 11 with just under two minutes to go in the first half, and Caden Flowers found Pearse Uniacke for a dunk with six second to go that sent the Gators into the locker room with a 43-30 advantage.
A Uniacke free throw pushed the lead to 14 in the opening minute of the second half but Cal State East Bay closed the cap with a 9-0 run that cut the lead to five. A Burrell jumper stopped the run but another 8-0 Pioneers run put them in front by one, 47-46. Buckets from CJ Bellamy and Burrell put the Gators back up by three with 15 minutes to go. The Gators never relinquished the lead after that, though CSUEB tied the game at 68-68 with 3:48 to go. A Bakke three-point play gave the Gators the lead for good with 2:20 left and neither team recorded a field goal the rest of the way.
SF State spends the year on the road for its next three games, beginning with a trip to Cal Poly Humboldt on Thursday, December 5 at 7:30 p.m. Live stats will be available at sfstategators.com, and fans can tune in to the action on FloCollege.
