SAN FRANCISCO – The Cal State San Marcos basketball team (13-8, 12-4 CCAA) saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end with a 64-62 loss on the road at San Francisco State (11-11, 7-9 CCAA) on Saturday afternoon.
TOP PERFORMERS
Greg Milton III – 15 points | 4 assists | 2 rebounds
Quinn Denker – 12 points | 5 rebounds | 5 assists
Joel Mensah – 12 points | 6 rebounds | 3 steals
HOW IT HAPPENED
Trailing 15-8, CSUSM scored seven consecutive points and tied the game at 15-all on Denker’s two made free throws with 8:03 left in the half.
A Denker layup at the 7:30 mark of the period gave CSUSM its first lead at 17-16.
Down 22-20, CSUSM ended the first half on a 7-2 run capped by an Edwyn Collins layup to make it 27-24 at the break
The Cougars shot 37% (10-of-27) in the first 20 minutes while holding the Gators to 30.8% (15-of-30).
In the second half, neither side had more than a six-point lead as Denker made it 43-37 with a driving layup off a turnover.
The Gators knotted the game once again at 47-all on a layup by Jake Paxton before the Cougars went ahead 52-47 on a layup by Mensah and a second-chance 3-pointer by Milton with 7:29 to play.
Still down by five at 54-49 with 5:42 to go, SF State went on a 6-0 run and took the lead at 55-54 on Eche Okeke’s layup with 4:06 remaining.
CSUSM took its final lead of the game right after with a Mensah layup to make 56-55 with 3:46 left.
A 7-0 run by the Gators put them up 62-56 with 18 seconds to go.
The Cougars were unable to catch up to the Gators in the final seconds of the game as Denker made a 3-pointer to end the contest.
SF State shot 50% (15-of-30) in the second half while CSUSM came in at 41.7% (15-of-36).
QUICK HITS
CSUSM ended the game shooting 39.7% (25-of-63) while the Gators were a bit better at 41.1% (23-of-56).
The Cougars were outrebounded 46-27.
CSUSM committed fewer turnovers at 17-10.
The Cougar tallied more assists (14-12) and steals (11-6).
SF State had the lead for 19:24 while CSUSM clocked in at 15:29.
UP NEXT
CSUSM will return to The Sports Center to face Chico State on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
