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Chico State quieted a raucous crowd at The Swamp Friday night as they out-rebounded the Gators on their way to a 67-50 victory in SF State’s CCAA opener.
Chico State won the rebounding battle 41-23 and SF State shot 27.3 percent from the field in the second half and 35.6 percent for the game.
Senior guard Calvin Otiono attributed the slow offensive night to a defensive tactic Chico State employed.
“We really didn’t play our tempo,” Otiono said. “They slowed us down and we didn’t score at the rate that we are usually able to score at,”
Chico’s tough defense kept the Gators to 50 points, a tally well below their 92 point average for the season which consists of a loss to Seattle Pacific University and a victory over Dominican University in Chico over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The leading scorer for SF State was senior Will Overton, Jr. who had 18 points.
Head coach Paul Trevor expressed his displeasure with the team’s performance after the game.
“I’m really disappointed,” Trevor said. “I thought we would come out and put on a better show and play a lot tougher. But give them credit, they’re a great program and came in here with a sense of urgency and put it to us.”
SF State identified rebounding as a key to victory this week and was upset that this goal didn’t go as planned.
“It was a point of emphasis and it’s been a point of emphasis for a long time, but they dominated us on the glass and beat us to every 50/50 ball,” Trevor said.
The Gators grabbed an early six point lead, but never saw it grow any further. Chico State took a 12-10 lead with 14 minutes left in the first half and never let it go. Their lead grew to as high as 20 points before settling on the 17 point victory to improve their CCAA record to 1-1.
Otiono repeated rebounding several times in a row to emphasize the importance of it against Stanislaus.
“They rebound better than Chico did tonight,” said senior guard Nefi Perdomo. “So we got to come tomorrow (Saturday) with our main focus on rebounding and I’m pretty sure if we rebound, we’ll have a different outcome.”
As for the loss against Chico, Trevor couldn’t find much on the court to feel encouraged about.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well, defend well or rebound well,” Trevor said. “The (only) positive thing about tonight was the San Francisco State people that are coming out to support our basketball program.”
This game was the first of a back-to-back this weekend at the Swamp. The Gators bounced back to beat undefeated Cal State Stanislaus the next night with a score of 71-56.
