ARCATA, Calif. -- Down by 15 points with 19 minutes to go in the game, Luke Cochran's thunderous dunk ignited the Sonoma State men's basketball team to finish the game on an impressive 36-12 run, effectively turning out the lights on Humboldt State and its 'Black Out' crowd of 884 for a stunning 65-56 victory Thursday night at Lumberjack Arena in Arcata.

The Seawolves (19-5 overall), who remained at No. 6 in this week's NCAA Division II West Region rankings released Wednesday, jump back into a tie for second place in the CCAA standings with San Francisco State at 15-4 with one game remaining in the regular season.  The Lumberjacks stumbled to 13-14 (7-12 CCAA).

Nathan Molony-Benjamin had a monstrous game, notching a double-double featuring a game-high 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Seawolves to the win.
 
SSU got off to a sluggish start early on in the contest, falling behind 3-13 in the first six minutes of the game.  The Seawolves were able to cut Humboldt's lead down to 12-18 at the halfway point before the Jacks went on a 7-1 run, expanding their lead to 13-25, their biggest lead of the half. SSU would counter this run by going on a 10-3 run of their own and suddenly only trailed 23-28 with 4:40 to go in the half. Then, Sonoma went cold and found themselves trailing 29-39 at the half. Molony-Benjamin was a bright spot in the half for the Seawolves, scoring 10 of his points and grabbing six of his rebounds in the opening frame.
 
The second half started out much like the first half for the Seawolves, falling behind 29-44 in the early going. Luckily, this game-high deficit was only a minute into the second half and from that point on there was a barrage of made shots and the defense buckled down. Over the next eight minutes of play the Seawolves exploded for a 25-4 run, jacking Humboldt of any momentum they had and now led 54-49 with 11:26 left in the game.
 
From there, the scoring was pretty consistent with Sonoma going up 60-52 at one point before Humboldt cut the lead down to 60-56 with two minutes remaining. Those would be the last points the Jacks scored, as the Seawolves scored the game's final five points, finishing with a 65-56 victory and their biggest lead of the night.
 
Jimmy Golden led the charge on the offensive end in the second half, where he scored nine of his 10 points. The offense was pretty consistent shooting throughout the night, going 11 for 24 in the first half and 11 for 25 in the second half, good enough for 44.9 percent overall. A significant part of the success in the second half was Sonoma's ability to get to the line. They shot 13 for 19 in the half and 20 for 31 overall, while the Jacks only converted 7 of their 14 attempts.
 
The defense played a key part in Thursday night's victory, much like it has all season for the Seawolves. After allowing the Jacks to shoot 45.16 percent from the floor in the first half, the nation's number one defense locked Humboldt down in the second half, holding them to an abysmal 6 for 22 shooting performance (27.27 percent). The defense made all the necessary adjustments in the second half and took away Humboldt's biggest first half weapon, the three ball. After shooting 8 for 19 (42.11 percent) in the first half, Sonoma held Humboldt to only 1 for 13 shooting from distance in the second half, which is only 7.69 percent.
 
The regular season will come to a close on for the Seawolves on the road Saturday night as they travel to Pomona to take on Cal Poly. Tip-off from Kellogg Gym will occur at 7:30 PM. Then, SSU will head home to the Wolves' Den for the First Round of the CCAA Championships on Tuesday February 28th at 7:00 PM, the opponent still to be determined.