ROHNERT PARK, CALIF. – On Saturday, December 10th, the Sonoma State men's basketball team completed their weekend sweep with a dominant win over CCAA rival Chico State. The Seawolves continued to score the ball at will, inside and out, and held the Wildcats to just 12 made field goals in the first half and 33% from three-point range. Head coach
Rich Shayewitz had his offense clicking on all cylinders as SSU exploded for a 48-point first half with balanced scoring, 60% from the field and 6-9 from three-point range for one of their highest marks of the season.
FIRST HALF: SSU (48) | CHICO (34)
Division I transfer from Eastern Washington,
Austin Fadal, would get his third start of the season but his first since returning from injury weeks prior. Fadal has been a scoring threat off the bench in the Seawolves last few games and brought that same threat to the starting lineup tonight. Fadal kicked off the game with back-to-back buckets including a three ball to give SSU a quick 5-0 lead.
Junior center
Josh Walker would take the baton next and score three straight buckets inside off of some great play calling and off-ball movement from the Seawolves. Walker would make his 5th start of the season and finish the game with 6 points on 3-4 shooting.
Over the next several minutes, the intensity would remain high with physical play and challenges at the rim. Keeping their head, the Seawolves would sprinkle in three pointers from
Nick Klarman,
Austin Fadal, and
Damian Wallace to slowly take a 7-point lead. Under the 9-minute mark, the Seawolf defense would force an empty possession from the Wildcats and after coming down with the rebound,
Dillon Iyawe would find
Damian Wallace on the wing. Wallace would drive into the paint before a great handoff to the cutting Fadal who would reverse it in to give Sonoma State an 11-point lead.
With the Seawolves continuing to play solid defense and force deep jumpers from the Wildcats guards, they would grab their largest lead of the half off a corner three from Damain Wallace. Wallace came off the bench and made an immediate impact in the first half. Sophomore forward
Jaylen Wells would hold the ball at the top of the three point line and make a tremendous no-look pass to the corner where Wallace would connect on the catch-and-shoot three.
Every time Chico State responded with a bucket, Shayewitz and his offense would do the same and never seemed to let the Wildcats get going. Sonoma State would exchange buckets down the stretch but maintain their 14-point lead at the half. Fadal led all scorers with 19 points at the break while Wallace went 3-4 from the field good for 8 points to lead all bench scorers.
SECOND HALF: SSU (78) | CHICO (69)
After a three ball from Chico State right out of the gate, the Seawolves would answer with two straight buckets of their own including a tough finish inside from
Jaylen Wells, plus the foul for the three-point play. A forced turnover the following possession would spring Fadal into the open court where he coasted for the easy finish, giving SSU their largest lead of the night at 16 points.
After three three-pointers for Chico to start the second half, Sonoma State would answer with their first three ball of the half on a last second back pass from freshman point guard
Nick Medeiros. Medeiros drove into the lane and pulled up for a jumper but with a tightly contested shot he whipped a pass behind him to the top of the floor where Wells knocked down the deep catch and shoot three, giving Sonoma state a 17-point lead.
With the Seawolves lead extending, the game still felt tightly contested as Chico State possessed several quality shooters and could get back into the game in the blink of an eye. With the physicality increasing on both sides, junior center from Sacramento
Dillon Iyawe would make his presence felt with some strong rebounds and aggressive play at the rim. Iyawe also returned from injury weeks prior and arguably had his best game of the season as finished with 8 points and a season high 9 rebounds.
Iyawe's aggressiveness inside also got him to the free throw line where he was 4-6 on the night. A made three from Chico State nearing two minutes made it a 13-point game but a couple of clutch offensive rebounds in the Seawolves next possession killed a lot of clock and seemed to seal the game. The Wildcats would get a couple of buckets in the final minute of the game to bring the lead back to within 10 points as SSU defenders did not want to foul and stop the clock. It proved too little too late though for the Wildcats as Sonoma State held on for the convincing 78-69 victory, improving to 3-2 in CCAA play.
Head coach
Rich Shayewitz and the Seawolves ended a four-game losing skid to Chico State dating back to the 2019-20 season. The program's last win over the Wildcats came during the 2018-19 season in a 98-88 victory on the road.
Austin Fadal finished with a season high 23 points and records back-to-back 20-point games in the two-game homestand. Wells got in a groove and recorded 15 points in the second half to finish with 20 on the night and a game high 12 rebounds. Wells notches his 4th double-double of the season after coming off back-to-back conference player of the week awards.
Damian Wallace and
Dillon Iyawe each combined for 16 points in the contest to lead the Seawolves bench. SSU would outscore Chico 20-15 in bench points. The Seawolves also attacked the paint all night and outscored the Wildcats 36-20 in paint points. Chico never led in the game as Sonoma State seemed to control everything in route to their 4th win of the season.
After just a three-win season during the team's 2021-22 campaign, Shayewitz and his redesigned team have already surpassed that mark and secured quality conference wins over Cal State East Bay, Stanislaus State and now rival Chico State.
Sonoma State completes the weekend sweep with a win over Chico State, the program's first since the 2019-20 season. The Seawolves improve to 4-7 overall and 3-2 in CCAA play. As they enter the winter break Sonoma State will head south for a non-conference tune-up against Division I Cal Baptist on December 18th at 7:00 PM. After that, conference action will not resume until January 1st in a home matchup against Cal Poly Humboldt at 3:00 PM. Live stats, stream, and ticket links can all be found at sonomaseawolves.com on the men's basketball schedule page. As always you can stream the game LIVE on the CCAA Network.
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