The Sonoma State Men’s Basketball team had a two-game home slate last week. It kicked off on Thursday night when the Seawolves faced a shorthanded Cal State Dominguez team. Dominguez Hills came into this game with the worst record in the CCAA at 4-12 and suited up only five players for the game, while Sonoma was perched in third place in the conference at 9-7.
Both teams started off slow, trading buckets, with an emphatic dunk from junior Jaylen Wells being a highlight. The tide started to shift as Dominguez Hills got hot from the three and went on an 11-0 run to set the pace early in the first half. Jaylen Wells was doing the bulk of the scoring for the Seawolves putting up six of the first 11 for the team.
The Toros continued to hit from behind the arc throughout the first half giving the Seawolves all they could handle. SSU hit their first shot from downtown around the 6:30 mark by junior Pierce Rexford. Sonoma couldn’t seem to muster up a flow on offense while the Toros remained hot. Three-pointers were the difference in the first half with Toros Jeremy Dent-Smith and Jordan Hilstock going a combined 6-12 from behind the arc. The Seawolves also coughed up eight turnovers as well.
Junior Dillon Iyawe got busy in the paint early in the second half delivering six points to cut the Toros lead to seven. As the half went on Dominguez Hills stifled every run the Seawolves attempted. Sonoma got into foul trouble early which allowed the game to slow down and Dominguez Hills to maintain their lead.
Despite already being in the bonus, Sonoma eventually shaved down the lead with a hard fastbreak layup from senior Damian Wallace. After a timely 3-pointer by senior Nick Klarman, who was playing in his first game in weeks due to injury, you could feel the energy rising in the crowd. By the next possession, you could hear “Defense!” being chanted throughout the Wolves’ Den. With another 3-pointer by Pierce Rexford and good defense, the Seawolves found themselves in a two-point game with three minutes remaining. Unfortunately, just when you could sense the game turning in the Seawolves’ favor, fouls and some untimely shots from Sonoma gave Dominguez Hills just what they needed to finish out the game and escape with a 72-61 victory Thursday night.
In Saturday’s game, Sonoma played 8-14 Cal State East Bay. This game was a completely different story in the first half for the Seawolves. They carried an 11 point lead into halftime with a strong performance from junior Julian Bryant with nine points at the break. However, they couldn’t hold the momentum in the second half and ended up being outscored 40-18 in a 66-55 loss to East Bay.
Despite both losses this week and a now fourth place ranking in the conference standings, players still have confidence moving forward. When I asked Jaylen Wells about how the team plans to maintain their position in the conference, he told me “Just taking it one game at a time, our coach likes to call it a one game season, so the next game is always the most important one.” Sonoma’s next home games are this Thursday and Saturday as they take on Cal Poly Pomona at 7:30 p.m. and top seeded Cal State San Bernardino at 3 p.m. You can view their schedule at sonomaseawolves.com.