Their attitude had shifted. The hustle and the tenacity was there. Even, the crowd was energetic, especially the hooligans centered at court side annoying the opponent.

A different SF State men's basketball team showed up on Wednesday--and it wasn't the one that got thoroughly embarrassed on its home court on Saturday night and went into the locker room deflated. Rather, this was a team that responded to their coach.

With a balance scoring attack led by center Brad Visman and guard Phoenix O'Rourke, each with 11 points, the Gators prevailed against the CSU Monterey Bay Otters 62-53 in front of a festive SF State gym atmosphere.

"That's a quality win against a quality opponent," Treseler said. "I thought our guys started out great and played very hard throughout."

But it wouldn't come easy.

Despite taking a 36-22 halftime lead, the Gators offense struggled to get points on the scoreboard in the 2nd half. The Otters went on a 16-2 run to tie it at 38-38, and eventually took the lead, while SF State nearly went five minutes without hitting a field goal.

Yet, coach Treseler was confident that his team would weather the Otters' storm.

"We didn't hit the panic button," Treseler said. "We finish the game like you're suppose to do."

After the Otters increase their advantage to 44-39 with 8:36 remaining, the Gators rallied to tie the game. With the game tied at 44, O'rourke used a screen from Visman and connected on a deep three that gave the Gators the lead 47-44. He would later hit another to seal it, ending any chances of a Otters comeback.

O'Rourke made three 3-pointers and also grabbed six rebounds for the Gators, which have now won three of its past four games and are 14-10 overall and 8-9 in conference games. Similarly, the Otters fall to the same exact record.

"We had a lot of energy," said O'Rourke.

That energy would come from the Gators bench.

Anchored by O'Rourke, Visman, Ryan Wessels, Kevin Piva and Derek Fletcher, the scrappy reserves combined for 34 points, over half of the Gators total input.

"Everyone played great," O'Rourke said. "Our bench played pretty good. Guys like B.J (Visman), and Wess played excellent team defense."

Then there was Visman. The Gators offense ran smoothly through the big man-- with players cutting and terrific ball movement-- helping the Gators to begin the game on a 21-8 run.

"It hit us hard," said Visman, about the Gators second half struggles. "But we knew we were going to comeback. We had a lot left in the tank and knew we were going to make a push."

After an emotional defeat coming from the hands of the CCAA's best Dominguez Hills Toros last weekend, the Gators came out of the gates fast, trying to quickly forget the bad taste in their mouth.

"We came out a little flat," Visman said. "But tonight coach said to forget about the last game because we have a big game."

The Gators will try to make it two straight when they go on the road to battle with UC San Diego on Friday.