ROHNERT PARK, CALIF. - On Thursday, February 24th, the Sonoma State men's basketball team returned to the Wolves' Den for their final two games of the 2021-22 regular season. The Seawolves would claw their way to just a four point deficit in the second half but ultimately fall to the 14th ranked team in the nation in Cal State San Marcos, 59-84. Head coach Rich Shayewitz and his group came out firing as they connected on four of their six shot attempts to start the game and take an early 10-4 lead. Back-to-back buckets, including a three ball, from freshman Jaylen Wells would get the crowd into the game early. The crowd would ignite after a great cut in the paint from sharp shooter Jacob Williams who received the ball from center Jeremy Lillis as he finished through contact for the and one. The bucket plus the foul would draw an early timeout from Cal State San Marcos.

The Seawolves largest lead of the night came minutes later after two huge fast break buckets. Williams would keep his stroke going as he hit a transition three on an outlet pass from Damian Wallace to make it 13-7. Then after a Jaylen Wells steal, SSU would spring out in transition as Wells hit the cutting Wallace for the easy lay in to give Sonoma State an 8 point lead. SSU's lead would be short lived though as the Cougars did what ranked teams do as they bounced back and found their composure in order to go on an 11-0 scoring run to retake a three point lead with ten minutes left in the first half. Both teams would find their rhythm offensively and exchange the next 20 points of the half, giving San Marcos a 41-33 lead at the break. Both teams shot well over 50% from the field in the first 20 minutes of action but the difference would come at the free throw line. Typically a solid free throw shooting team, Sonoma State went just 3-7 from the stripe and turned the ball over 9 times, while San Marcos went a perfect 10-10 from that mark and recorded 3 fewer turnovers. Jaylen Wells led all scorers with 11 points on an efficient 4-6 shooting. 

With the momentum limited due to a back and forth end to the first half, Shayewitz and his squad would come out swinging as they did to start the game and go on a 7-3 run to start the second half. The Cougars would hit a three on their opening possession to keep the Seawolf crowd quiet but SSU would answer with three straight buckets. Two tough layups inside again for Wells and a contested three ball from Nick Klarman would give the Seawolves 7 straight points, make it a four point game, and force anther early timeout from San Marcos.

Greg Milton III would continue his takeover at the start of the second half, however, as he came out of the timeout and was able to draw a foul and hit two free throws and then cash in on a transition three off of an SSU turnover. Milton III would score the Cougars first 8 points to start the second half. After competitive starts in the first and second half, the Seawolves would start to lose control of the game a bit as San Marcos would go on a 13-0 scoring run inside the 10 minute mark to put SSU away. The Greg Milton III show would quickly turn to the Blake Seits show as Seits went on an absolute tear making six buckets in a span of five minutes to single handedly put the Seawolves to bed. Out of his six made buckets, four of them would come from behind the arc as he finished with a game high 27 points, 16 of those coming in the second half. 

Freshman star Jaylen Wells did what he could as he willed his way to his third 20-point performance of the season. Wells would finish with a team high 20 points on 7-14 shooting and 5-6 shooting from the free throw line. Nick Klarman finished with 7 points on 3-5 shooting while Jeremy Lillis was able to knock down a couple of pick and pop three balls to give himself 6 points in his 23 minutes of action. After shooting over 40% from the field and from three in the first half, SSU would shoot under 40% from both marks in the second half as the Cougars ran away with this one midway through the second half. 

Sonoma State falls to 3-24 on the season and 3-18 in CCAA play. The Seawolves will return to the Wolves' Den for their final game of the 2021-22 regular season and senior day on Saturday, February 26th as they take on Cal State LA. Simon Ramirez, Kenny Olsem, Isaiah Usher, Wesley Gilbert, Jeremy Lillis, and Jake Salinero will all be honored as SSU's six seniors. Live stats and stream links can be found at sonomaseawolves.com and all games can be streamed 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