Following a 79-54 victory over the Cal State East Bay Pioneers the night before, the SF State men's basketball team continued their winning ways by defeating the UC San Diego Tritons 78-60 on Dec. 4 at the main gymnasium.

With back-to-back wins, SF State has now won five straight games. They are 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.

"From all of our seniors returning to the pieces we added, expectations are high," said starting point guard Marquel Hoskins. "We just work hard every day. Coach Trevor pushes us to the limit. That's what is leading to these results and is happening right now."

As soon as the pre-game rituals and warm-ups were over, the Gators, wearing gold jerseys, resembled a group of killer bees on defense. They applied tremendous pressure forced San Diego to commit 13 turnovers.

The Gators gave their opponents a deadly dose of defense as they stung, trapped and double teamed the taller Triton team, causing them to make their first field goal with only nine minutes left in the first half.

SF State held a 21-point lead twice throughout the first half and didn't allow the away team to score more than 19 points.

"We are starting to come together and learning to play with each other well," said senior forward Tim Pratt, who finished with at least 15 points and missed just one shot for the second straight game. "We did not underestimate these teams. That was big for us."

The Gators ended the first half with a 38-19 lead. Despite trailing the entire game by large margins, the Tritons didn't back down and essentially lived on the free throw line, making 21 of 25 free throws the rest of the way.

Little by little, UC San Diego crept back into the game, something that first-year head coach Paul Trevor said he knew was going to happen.

"My players asked me at halftime why I was so concerned," Trevor said. "I told them that UCSD is a good team. They are not going to quit. They kept coming at us and that woke us up. That was a good challenge, but we responded."

Trevor, who won his first home game on Friday, screamed several times from SF State's sideline whenever a foul was called or a Triton player made a wide-open shot.

His screams were so loud that they overshadowed the cheers and jeers coming from the rowdy student section known as "The Swamp."

"We talked a lot about discipline and execution," Trevor said. "It's natural to relax a little bit when you know you're up by a lot. We have to keep a better frame of mind. We are still working on it."

In the end, SF State ran out the clock to seal their perfect 2-0 start at home for the season.

"We have been getting our wins by playing defense," Hoskins said. "When we score off turnovers, we don't need to run our offense. It gets us going."

Next up for the Gators will be a non-conference away game against Division I University of Nevada on Dec. 11.