ROHNERT PARK, CALIF. - On Saturday, February 18th, the Sonoma State men's basketball team erased a 21-point deficit against the 12th ranked team in the nation, but would fall short in the end to split their final pair of home games of the 2022-23 season. The Seawolves picked up a big win on Thursday night to maintain their position before falling by just four points to 12th ranked Cal State San Bernardino.
SSU would find themselves down 8 at the half but a terrific first half from sophomore phenom
Jaylen Wells and some solid free throw shooting would keep the Seawolves well in the game at the break. The Yotes were just 3-of-12 from three point range but that would change in a hurry in the second half as they came out and hit four straight three balls to quickly grow their lead to 17 points and force an SSU timeout from head coach
Rich Shayewitz.
San Bernardino would continue to pile it on near the ten minute mark as they seemed to get whatever they wanted offensively. Their lead would grow to as many as 21 points, but after the ten minute mark, a strong layup inside from junior center
Dillon Iyawe would seem to get things going for the Seawolves. The layup from Iyawe would start a 10-0 scoring run for the Seawolves that would ignite the crowd and include a pair of dunks from
Jaylen Wells.
Wells would pick off a pass at the top of the three point line and soar for the open dunk. Two possessions later, junior guard
Julian Bryant would stand up his man and rip the ball away from the Yotes attacker, jump starting a fast break for the Seawolves that ended in a two-handed slam from Wells. With the lead all the way down to just 11 in the blink of an eye, San Bernardino would call a timeout to regroup.
Wells would connect on a three pointer minutes later to cut the deficit to 10. He would go on to explode for his 6th 30-point game of the season as he continues to keep pace and lead the league in scoring. Under the four minute mark, freshman point guard
Nick Medeiros would get in on the action with a great series of plays consisting of a made three pointer and a great fast break assist to Iyawe, cutting the lead to just 5 points with under three to play.
Both teams would trade a pair of buckets and some free throws in the final two minutes, and then down to their last chance, a missed three point attempt for the Seawolves would lead to a quick break and a dunk on the other end for the Yotes, sealing the game with just 32 seconds remaining. Senior forward
Nick Klarman would splash home a three ball with under 10 seconds left, but SSU would simply run out of time and have too big of a hole to climb out of as San Bernardino held on to win 85-81.
The 12th ranked Yotes caught fire in the second half as they went 17-for-31 and hit 5 three's to build their 21-point lead. They would finish the game with five players in double figures and forced a game high 16 turnovers from the Seawolves.
Nick Medeiros would go for a career high 19 points as the team's second highest scorer on the night. Iyawe would chip in 12 points and 6 rebounds, good for his 7th game of the season in double figures. Wells would highlight the Seawolves offense once again with his second straight 30-point performance. He would add 8 rebounds, 3 steals and shoot 58% from the field to complete his impressive stat line.
Tonight was also senior night for the SSU men's basketball team. We would like to congratulate and recognize once again
Damian Wallace,
Preston Blakely, and
Nick Klarman on their terrific Seawolf careers.
LOOKING AHEAD:
Sonoma State falls to 11-15 overall and an even 10-10 in conference play. They will finish out the regular season on the road with firm control of their playoff fate. The Seawolves will take on Cal State LA on Thursday and Cal State San Marcos on Saturday with a chance to clinch a CCAA tournament berth for the first time since 2017. 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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