The Seawolves hosted their annual Pack The Den games, and the community showed up and showed out for free t-shirts, concession snacks and to support their Seawolves. Back-to-back nail-biter games took place on Feb. 3, as both women’s (6-9) and men’s (6-9) basketball teams played Cal Poly Pomona. “Having that support from our community gives us a lot of energy and more of a want to win. It fuels us at the end of the day,” said PG Sienna Cherwinski. The women’s team was looking to break their five-game losing streak but fell short to Pomona 68-76 in overtime.

Emotions were heightened when the referees mistakenly disregarded SG Trena Rathjen’s second free throw attempt after a timeout, which led to a three-pointer by the Broncos. “It’s frustrating,” said Cherwinski, “But just coming together and focusing on things we need to focus on helps us stay composed.” With seven seconds left in the game, Clark tied it up at 58, sending the game to overtime. Unfortunately, the Seawolves couldn’t finalize a win, making this their sixth loss. “The game just revealed how we handle adversity, and how we can get through it together,” said Clark, who finished the game with 16 points. While game one of the night didn’t end in a victory, the men’s team took down Pomona in a tight game. “It felt good to get back in the win column, we lost four in a row, so we’re glad to get a win,” said SG Julian Bryant. The team faced adversity when forward Terrence Haywood was ejected 13 minutes into the first half. “They tried to step over Nick [Medeiros], so I pushed one guy over. As I walked to the bench, another player pushed me. They reviewed it for 15 minutes, and I got ejected,” said Haywood. He then went on to watch the rest of the game in the locker room.

“We’re just more together, as a unit. Last time it was a super low-scoring game at Pomona. We wanted to make some adjustments, make some changes defensively, and we went out there and got the dub,” said Bryant when comparing their win to their Jan. 11 loss. SG Andrew Henderson said, “That back-to-back scoring helped us a lot to get through this dub.” Bryant and Henderson were the leading scorers of the game.

Regarding the community coming together to support the team, Bryant said, “It means everything. This was one of the most fun games, and every Pack The Den night is super fun. The stands were jumping, so [we] appreciate you all coming out.”

Both teams are away this week, playing Thursday. against Cal State LA, then Saturday against Cal State Dominguez Hills.