ROHNERT PARK, CALIF. – On Thursday, December 8th, the Sonoma State men's basketball team finished off the SSU doubleheader with a blowout victory over Stanislaus State, 80-46, giving them their third win in their last four contests. The Seawolves locked it down defensively from the first whistle and their zone scheme forced difficult shots from outside for the Warriors. A momentous 24-2 run during the middle portion of the first half would give the Seawolves a convincing 22-point lead and ultimately put the game out of reach for the Warriors.
FIRST HALF:
Both teams would exchange buckets early on and some offensive rebounds and second chances would give the Warriors some easy buckets inside. Nearing the 12-minute mark, junior center
Dillon Iyawe would throw down a one-handed jam off of a great shovel pass underneath the hoop from
Pierce Rexford to knot the game up at ten and help ignite the Seawolves scoring run.
Junior forward
Austin Fadal would showcase his one-on-one talent tonight as he came off the bench and took over for the Seawolves. Fadal attacked the hoop all night long and was a pivotal player early in SSU's scoring run. After the Iyawe dunk, Fadal went on to score 11 straight points including a three ball from deep to give SSU a 17-10 lead.
Head coach
Rich Shayewitz and his group seemed to score at will and in all different ways but also played some of their best defense of the season. SSU held Stanislaus State to just five made field goals in the first half and active hands and great help defense in the zone led to challenged passes and contested rebounds the entire night. The Seawolves forced a season high 19 turnovers from the Warriors offense and were able to score 25 points off those turnovers.
A corner three ball from second year player and Santa Rosa JC transfer
Damian Wallace would cap off a 34-point first half for the Seawolves and give them a 20-point lead at the half.
SECOND HALF:
Stanislaus would threaten the Seawolves lead at the start of the half as they connected on back-to-back buckets to make it a 15-point game. However, the two-time reigning conference player of the week,
Jaylen Wells, would catch fire after a quiet first half and score 6 straight points to grow SSU's lead back to 21 points.
After the two early buckets to start the half from the Warriors, SSU would once again go on a staggering 19-0 run to build a 34-point lead! Swift ball movement inside and then back out created good looks from outside but also allowed for easy lay in's in the paint as
Dillon Iyawe got it going again early on in the second. Iyawe would have his best game as a Seawolf, finishing with a season high 14 points on 5-6 shooting in his 25 minutes off the bench.
Back-to-back buckets from junior forward
Pierce Rexford under the ten-minute mark would give SSU their largest lead of the game to that point at 38 points. As both team's benches started to empty and make their way into the game, junior shooting guard
Brandynn Manning would capitalize on his opportunity and connect on a few baskets to get his name in the stat sheet. Manning would drill consecutive elbow jumpers to give SSU a 41-point lead that would go down as their largest of the game.
"YOU GET A BASKET, YOU GET A BASKET, AND YOOOUUUU GET A BASKET"
Despite only three players finishing in double figures for the Seawolves, their bench outscored the Warriors 53-29 and the game's leading scorer,
Austin Fadal, also came off the bench. Late in the game,
Brandynn Manning and
Pierce Rexford combined for 13 points. Manning was effective off the dribble and hit a pair of step back jumpers for his four points.
Rafael Gomez also came in late for SSU and recorded 3 assists on some beautiful backdoor passes. His 3 assists in 12 minutes of action tied the team high on the night.
Damian Wallace also finished the night perfect from the field, as he recorded 5 points on two shots and also converted a tough driving layup plus the foul late in the second half. Sonoma State would win their third game of the season 80-46 and even up their conference record at 2-2. The team's 34-point margin of victory would go down as their largest since the 2018-19 season when the Seawolves beat Cal State Monterey Bay 97-61.
Sonoma State will look for a weekend sweep as they take on rival Chico State this Saturday at 3:00 PM. The Seawolves improve to 3-7 and 2-2 in CCAA play. 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.
Be sure to follow your Seawolves on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get all the latest SSU athletics updates and information. Sonoma State athletics also has launched a new fan app in partnership with From Now On. Download the free app today in both the Apple and Google Play stores by searching Sonoma State Seawolves in the app store. @SonomaSeawolves | #NomaNation
