HAYWARD, CALIF. – On Thursday, December 1st, the Sonoma State men's basketball team won a wild one in overtime to pick up their second straight win and grab their first win in conference action. Reigning CCAA Player of the Week
Jaylen Wells came up clutch once again and hit a huge three ball with 40 seconds remaining to tie the game and ultimately force overtime after a defensive stop. The Seawolves would go on to outscore the Pioneers 15-9 in OT and knock down some clutch free throws to seal the game and record back-to-back wins for the first time since the 2018-19 season.
FIRST HALF:
Despite not having one of their more productive nights offensively, head coach
Rich Shayewitz and his group did an excellent job of getting to the free throw line and had their best defensive night of the season, holding Cal State East Bay to just 40% from the field and under 30% from three-point range.
Both teams would have a slow start out of the gate as senior forward
Nick Klarman would get the first bucket of the game near the 17-minute mark. Sonoma State would trail for most of the game but always kept themselves within striking distance. The Pioneers would hold two separate 8-point leads late in the first half but buckets from juniors
Dillon Iyawe and
Julian Bryant would end the threat and keep the deficit within ten points.
Junior transfer and former Division I product
Austin Fadal returned from injury Thursday night and made his impact felt as he recorded 6 first half points off the bench, helping the Seawolves to just a six-point deficit at the half.
SECOND HALF:
The Seawolves found their largest deficit of the game to start the second half as the Pioneers came out and hit back-to-back buckets to take an 11-point lead and force an SSU timeout. Forward
Jaylen Wells would answer out of the timeout with a strong driving layup plus the foul. After missing the first layup, he would get his own rebound and the putback, draw the foul, and convert the free throw for the three-point play.
From there, Sonoma State would slowly pick away at Cal State East Bay's lead and a jumper from Fadal near the ten-minute mark would make it just a two-point game. After trading turnovers, Fadal would continue to find a groove and take over, scoring four straight points to give the Seawolves a 45-44 advantage, their first lead of the second half. Fadal would take his defender one-on-one and burry a step back jumper just inside the three-point line for the Seawolves one-point lead.
Minutes later, the Pioneers would hit a three ball and take a 52-45 lead with just over four minutes in regulation. Despite the seven-point deficit, the Seawolves would bear down defensively and not allow another basket for the remainder of the half. From there,
Jaylen Wells and
Damian Wallace would account for the team's seven points in the final minutes to tie the game up and force overtime! After a contested layup and securing the rebound on the defensive end, Wells would outlet the ball quickly to Wallace on the wing who pushed the ball and drove all the way to the cup and finished a tough layup to make it a three-point game.
Both teams would exchange possessions once again, but nothing would seem to fall. After forcing another missed jumper from the Pioneers, the Seawolves would come back down the floor and with a well-executed play and an off-ball screen, Wells would come around the screen and knock down a huge catch-and-shoot three to tie the game right in front of the SSU bench. Both teams would get one more chance to win the game but come up empty on their possessions, allowing the game to head to overtime tied at 52 a piece.
OVERTIME:
Sonoma State would win the tip and convert right away as
Nick Klarman would dive to the hoop off a slip screen and junior transfer
Julian Bryant would make a great bounce pass to get the easy layup and take a two-point lead.
After East Bay tied the game up at 54, SSU would go on a game deciding 7-0 run into the final two minutes, with a huge basket from second year player
Damian Wallace. The local transfer from Santa Rosa JC would come off a screen to get the ball at the top of the floor. Wallace would then take his defender off the dribble and finish strong with the layup inside and take the contact for the three-point play! The Seawolves bench erupted as Wallace would collect himself and knock down the free throw to give them a 59-54 lead.
After withstanding back-to-back possessions from the Pioneers, Fadal would miss a tough fadeaway jumper but
Jaylen Wells would fight for position on the rebound and draw the foul, allowing him to go to the line and make two huge free throws to SSU a seven point lead. On the Seawolves next possession Wells would do almost the exact same thing as he fought for a tough rebound and drew the foul to head back to the free throw line. Wells would knock down both attempts to give SSU another seven-point lead.
The Pioneers would hit a three ball to keep things interesting and make it just a four-point game with under a minute to play but SSU would come up with another defensive stop and force East Bay's 18th turnover of the night. The Pioneers would now be forced to foul and hope for missed free throws, but senior
Nick Klarman and freshman
Nick Medeiros would for 4-4 from the line in the final seconds to put the game to bed. Shayewitz and his group would walk out of Pioneer Gymnasium with a wild 67-61 overtime victory.
As a team, Sonoma State would shoot just 40% from the field and only made two three's on the night, but they would pound the paint and make a season high 21 free throws. They would also have their best defensive performance on the season as they held East Bay to just 40% shooting, the lowest opponent shooting percentage of the season, and forced 19 turnovers, good for the most turnovers from an opponent this season.
Jaylen Wells continues his impressive scoring tear as he led all players with 28 points and added 8 rebounds.
Nick Medeiros added 7 points of his own but was a fabulous defensively as he finished with a season high 4 steals.
Austin Fadal and
Damian Wallace were huge contributors off the bench as the two combined for 18 points, each recording momentous buckets throughout the game.
Sonoma State improves to 2-6 overall and even up their conference record at 1-1. The team records back-to-back wins for the first time since the 2018-19 season. SSU will head south for a tough road matchup with Cal State Dominguez Hills on Saturday 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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