With seven minutes left in the game there were high hopes for SF State men’s basketball to be the comeback kids, but with a minute left Cal State Dominguez Hills had the lead and possession of the ball ensuring the Gators 64-60 loss.

“The SF State team you saw in the second half was the team that’s won four league games,” junior guard Alex Thomas said.

At half time the Gators (9-5, 4-3) were down seven points 30-23 and had more than a dozen fouls and turnovers – the Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros (7-6, 2-5) weren’t far behind in any statistical category.
Shooting 42 percent from the field and making a third of their three-point shots wasn’t enough to keep up with the Toros’ 50 percent in free throws – double the Gators’.

Cal State Dominguez Hills used an aggressive, tough style of defense that threw the Gators off their game early in the first half – pushing them from the strong team seen in recent games to a team with little composure and almost no patience to run their offense.

“We keep getting into holes early,” Thomas said, “and then we have to try to fight our way out. We should have started out being aggressive to their aggressiveness.” The Toros have a team made entirely of players over 6-feet-tall and averaging about 200 pounds.

More than 14 turnovers and 22 personal fouls put SF State’s top players into foul trouble early and kept the Gators from executing on offense. Significant foul trouble affected the way the Gators played, forcing them to play “a little soft” as Gator Derek Fletcher said after the game.

The Toro’s established control of the game’s pace early and the Gators fell into line until the second half, Thomas said.

“At half we calmed down,” Phoenix O’Rourke said. “We realized we could handle the pressure, but we just realized too late.”

More than 11 offensive rebounds were given to the Toros in the first half, coach Bill Treseler said. The Gators held the Toro’s to a mere six offensive rebounds in the second half but inched out total rebounds 41-40.

Almost a quarter of the rebounds were brought in by 6-foot-9 sophomore Derek Fletcher who also contributed eight points. Ryan Wessels pulled down nine rebounds and added four points along with Martin Flores’ six points to round out the post contributors.

Thomas kept the team in the game with four energizing three-point baskets to help the Gators gain their brief lead, along with five assists and a steal. Darryl Robinson, a junior guard, walked off the court without any points, but his three assists and three steals fed the high scorers.

Gators had their first lead with only seven minutes left after O’Rourke sunk a three-point shot from the baseline and made his foul shot to complete the four-point play followed up with another long three-pointer by Alex Thomas to give the Gators a one-point lead.

SF State will play again Saturday Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Swamp against Cal State L.A. “It should be another game like this one,” Thomas said. “Really physical, aggressive, but we’ll win.”