On Saturday, the San Francisco State University women’s basketball team lost 75-71 in overtime to open the California Collegiate Athletic Association regular season at the gym at SFSU against California State University, East Bay.

Approximately 113 people were in attendance, including athletes from both the SFSU men’s basketball and women’s volleyball teams.

It grew from a dozen watchers in pregame attendance to countless supporters filling up the seats in the gymnasium. Assistant coach Dante Henley saw it as a huge motivator for both sides.

“For a women’s basketball game, to have that many people in the gym and that excited about the games is cool for both teams,” Henley said. “When a mistake happens or you miss a few shots, if you see a friend, parent or teammate in the crowd clapping you up, that gives you the extra boost of energy to keep playing.”

Fouls became trouble for the Gators early on, including a traveling turnover committed by Alley Alvarado, which gave the ball to the Pioneers with 6:27 minutes left in the first quarter.

The Gators climbed out of an early five-point deficit to a 9-8 lead after a jumper by Perseas Gioukaris, their first lead after the opening minute of the game. However, the Pioneers responded with a 6-3 run to end the first quarter 14-12, including two free throws and four points in the paint.

“I told my teammates ‘If we would’ve had a better first quarter, we’re mowing that game,’” Alvarado said. “We’re a smaller team so we have to be able to box out and get rebounds a lot.”

The Gators performed stronger after a rough first quarter and Nyana Asiasi first led the charge with a steal and a jumper one minute into the second quarter. Following her two points and two missed layups by the visitors, Asiasi assisted in a bucket by Ana Daniels.

After the Gators gained a 15-14 edge, the Pioneers went on a 9-0 scoring run to extend their lead to 23-15, including four free throws, a jumper and fastbreak points.

Daniels and Asiasi led the effort for the Gators to crawl back in the final minutes of the first half. Daniels scored 5 points, in addition to Asiasi with two 3-pointers, the two scored 11 of the Gators’ 13 points in their 13-4 run. Last-minute aggressive defense aided in a 28-27 lead at halftime.

“My teammates did a good job at seeing me whenever I was one and stuff, so most of the credit would be towards them,” Daniels said. “It wasn’t like I just came down and scored the point. I got open, my teammates saw me and I connected off of that”

Asiasi, after going without a point in the first quarter, had eight points and one assist in the second quarter.

“Whenever I have a hot hand, my guards always make it a point to set up a play for me and just hit me,” Asiasi said. “I’ve definitely learned to take better quality shots than just throwing it up. That goes to just getting more reps in practice, building chemistry with my teammates and having better teamwork.”

The Gators received help from all sides when they climbed out of a 37-30 Pioneers lead after halftime. Daniels, Alvarado, Geriah Bradley and Asiasi pulled their team back to even with the visitors.

Layups by Daniels and Bradley, two free throws by Alvarado, five points by Asiasi and a three-pointer by Kali Myers brought the game to another crucial tie to end the third quarter. The 14-7 run by the Gators brought the Gators from a 37-30 deficit to 44 all.

As the time went down in the second half, the crowd thunderously stomped and rooted for the athletes. Some in attendance joined the Gators when they questioned fouls. The supportive noise bounced off the walls when the Pioneers went to the free-throw line.

The fourth quarter was a replay of the previous quarter. The visitors regained a lead but the Gators came back to squash the Pioneer’s lead.

Alvarado scored seven of the Gators’ 18 points in the fourth quarter. Alvarado was one of three 3-point shooters who contributed to the Gators’ push to even the score at the swamp. Alvarado’s ability to create and make plays as a point guard is what Henley compliments the redshirt junior for.

“She’s confident and aggressive enough to score for herself,” Henley said. “That’s a pretty cool player to have as your point guard, one who can both score and facilitate at the same time.”

The crowds’ roars amplified when the Pioneers went up to the line. The visitors made four out of their eight free throws and after each miss, the audience stood and cheered with echoing applause.

Both teams scored 18 points each in the fourth quarter and they both entered the first overtime of their seasons.

The countless ties between both teams represented an even matchup as Henley said. When the game forced a five-minute overtime, he said it extended the hopes for the Gators to win.

“This is one of those growing pain games,” Henley said. “We didn’t play well and East Bay played well, so for us to keep it a game going into overtime got us feeling like ‘Okay, we still have a chance.’”

Through the first three minutes of overtime, both sides of the court saw nothing beyond a one-point lead. The Gators made two out of four free throws and a 3-pointer to have a 69-68 lead when the clock showed two minutes and 15 seconds left.

The home squad kept their heads above water until the final two minutes. An unwanted return of the Pioneers’ scoring came back in the form of two free throws and a layup. The visitors had a 72-68 lead heading into the final minute.

At a time when the Gators needed a comeback most, their woes of fouls came back in the final 30 seconds. Two fouls by Ana Daniels and Kali Myers and a turnover by Bradley led to a 75-71 East Bay lead with 13 seconds remaining.

The final moments changed nothing on the scoreboard as the Gators fell short 75-71 in overtime against their cross-bay visitors.

Alvarado said after the team’s slow start, their confidence was building up regardless of the score.

“We have to play with confidence and our team did that once we got to the end of the game,” Alvarado said. “It’s having that and that hustle and grit the whole game, starting with it.”

Daniels said the team acknowledged the rough patches and will look to improve in order to achieve better results.

“As one of the leaders of the team, I could speak for us and say we know we should’ve done better today,” Daniels said. “We just need to work better on our execution. Once we get in the lab, we’ll really hone in on our execution and make sure we’re taking care of the ball the right way.”

Daniels and Asiasi each led the team with 16 points to 32 out of 71 total points. Daniels also led in rebounds with nine total rebounds in the game. Alvarado had six out of six free throws and she had the second most minutes of everyone on the team with 37, behind Daniels’s 39 minutes of play.

The two teams will meet again at Pioneer Gymnasium in Hayward on Dec. 22. Asiasi and her team are determined to display more aggression and pressure against the Pioneers when they visit Hayward.

“We did good with what we were given,” Asiasi said. “We go out and play them in a month and it’ll be a totally different game defensively because we slacked off a little bit on the boards, but that’s something we can go back and work on in practice.”