HAYWARD, CALIF. - On Saturday, January 22nd, the Sonoma State men's basketball team headed down to the East Bay to take on the Pioneers in a CCAA matchup. The Seawolves were fresh off of a 65-81 loss to Cal State Dominguez Hills. The score was not indicative of the actual performance as SSU found themselves down just four at the break with two late buckets just before the halftime buzzer. However, a massive 30-point performance from Toros guard Colten Kresl, including nine three pointers, helped break the game open in the second half. Simon Ramirez continued his scoring run for the Seawolves as he came off the bench and led the way with another 20-point performance and hitting a career high 5 three pointers on the night. Jaylen Wells and Damian Wallace also found themselves in double figures. Head coach Rich Shayewitz and his squad would look to tighten things up defensively and continue to ride their hot hands on the offensive side of the ball as they have been averaging over 70 points a game in the month of January.

After the Pioneers got the game going with back-to-back buckets, Jaylen Wells and Michael Smith would get the Seawolves on the board with consecutive three's to take an early 6-5 lead. After going down 19-26 near the 5 minute mark, Smith and Wells would strike again with back-to-back buckets to bring it back to a three point game. Under the  three minute mark Damian Wallace would showcase his active hands on defense and pick the pocket of a Pioneers guard. Wallace would stroll into the open court for the easy lay in to take a one point lead nearing the end of the first half. At the midway point only one more made field goal and two free throws would be the difference as Sonoma State trailed the Pioneers 32-36. Shayewitz and his squad found a nice rhythm offensively as they finished the half shooting over 40% from the field including 5 made three's as a team. Uncharacteristically, the Seawolves were just 3-8 from the free throw line as they are top three in the conference in that category. 

True freshman Jaylen Wells and veteran shooting guard Michael Smith each combined for 19 first half points. Smith had an efficient first half as he went 4-5 from the field and connected on two threes to lead all players with 10 points. Wells also found a nice stroke from deep as he went 2-4 from downtown to help keep SSU well in the game at the break. 

Big man Jeremy Lillis would assert his dominance down low on the very first possession of the second half as the Seawolves went to him in the low post. Lillis would back down his defender and score easily with his left to make it a two point game. The Pioneers would answer back with a wing three but SSU would come back down the court and Jaylen Wells would hit a big corner three on a beautiful cross court pass from Jackie Luong to make it just a one point game before the first media timeout. Jeremy Lillis would get in on the action from beyond the arc to start the second half as he would pull up from nearly 26 feet and drill a straight away three to knot the game up at 43! 

Turnovers started to plague the Seawolves in the first ten minutes of the second half as they committed 7 in the first half and started the first ten minutes of the second half with another 7 turnovers. The Pioneers would capitalize with some easy buckets inside and they would also get to the free throw line to extend their lead. A three ball at the eight minute mark would give East Bay an eleven point lead, their largest lead of the game thus far. From that momentous eight minute mark to inside four minutes, the Pioneers would go on a convincing 23-4 run and in the blink of an eye the Seawolves found themselves in a double digit hole. Cal State East Bay finished the second half shooting a staggering 65% from the field and hit a massive 9 three pointers. After a solid first half from SSU, they would shoot under 35% from the field to finish the game as that would help contribute to their increasing deficit. 

Despite a rough second half shooting the ball, Sonoma State continues to have their stars shine offensively as they work to keep their opposition in check. Freshman Jaylen Wells led all players with 19 points on 5-12 shooting. Wells also added 4 three pointers and 7 boards in the contest. Michael Smith broke out of a mini slump as he recorded 15 points on an efficient 50% shooting. Smith had only hit double figures in one of his last four games. Jeremy Lillis was effective inside in his 22 minutes of action. He went 3-4 from the field and grabbed 4 rebounds in the team loss. 

Sonoma State now falls to 3-15 on the season and 3-9 in CCAA play after their 61-85 defeat to Cal State East Bay. The Seawolves will return home to the Wolves' Den where they have found all three wins on the year and take on Stanislaus State and nationally ranked Chico State on January 27th and 29th. Live stats and stream links can be found at sonomaseawolves.com and all games can be streamed on the CCAA Network. Be sure to follow your Seawolves on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get all the latest SSU athletics updates and information. @SonomaSeawolves | #NomaNation