For the fourth time in many weekends, the SF State men’s basketball team split weekend conference games, beating the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos 73-60 on Saturday after a loss to Cal State San Bernardino on Friday.

“We don’t lose two in a row,” junior guard Alex Thomas said. Coming into the game the Gators (12-7, 7-5 CCAA) were in a three-way tie for fifth place in the conference and Cal Poly Pomona Broncos (8-9, 7-5 CCAA) were also in a three-way tie for second place.

Robert Hayes had a career-high 26 points with flu-ridden Chris Rodriguez’s 11 points and Alex Thomas’ 10 points, five rebounds and three assists rounding out the top scorers. Darryl Robinson, Chris Rodriguez and Will Logan had five rebounds each.

“They sat in the zone a little bit,” Thomas said. “We put the physical part of the game on them. We had people making big shots. We need to find those open holes and make those shots when the time comes.”

At half time SF State was down eight points, 35-28, with 10-29 from the field and only sunk one three-point shot while Cal Poly Pomona was 11-23 from the field and was 2-5 from behind the arc. Freshman point guard Hayes led the Gators in the first half with eight points, followed by Rodriguez with six points and five rebounds while Thomas and Derek Fletcher had four points each.

“The first half wasn’t as sharp, we were just going through the motions. The first half and the second half we really got it together,” junior guard Robinson said. The Gators had eight turnovers in the second half while the Broncos had 22 with only seven of those during the first half. The Gators converted the 22 turnovers into 27 points, while the Broncos scored eight off of turnovers.

5-foot-10-inch Hayes took the ball from downtown to the hoop three times in the first half–-no small feat when the smallest of the three Broncos was 6-foot-2-inches–-only to out-do himself in the second half with three strolls through the key, a couple from behind the arch and 8-13 on free throws. Hayes averages 11.5 points per game and has more than two dozen steals this season.

“I think it was my quickness, my confidence and my heart,” Hayes said, that got him scoring in the key against a team as large as the Broncos.

Points in the paint tonight were not a problem with the Gators out scoring the Broncos 28-20 in the trenches.

Cal Poly Pomona was out shooting the Gators in all three fields during the first half and after a sloppy start in the second half the Gators came back to outdo the Broncos 47-43 percent from the field and 33-31 percent from behind the arc. The Broncos out rebounded SF State 37-31 and had eight more personal fouls than the Gators’ 19.

“I think they came into the game thinking ‘they shouldn’t have beat us the first time,’” Robinson said. “Our intensity on defense won us the game.”

An alley-oop by Ryan Wessels, assisted by Alex Thomas, during the tenth minute of play in the second half started the final stretch in earnest–-giving the Gators a lead 48-42. Thomas is shooting more than 40 percent from the three point line during CCAA play, with two more from downtown against Cal Poly Pomona. Phoenix O’Rourke had three-pointer in the second half topping off his previous two field goals, two assists and two rebounds.

SF State will be hosting Chico State on Friday Feb. 5 and then Cal State Stanislaus on Saturday Feb. 6. The Gators had their first consecutive road game wins against Chico State and Cal State Stanislaus a month ago.