On Thursday night the stage was set for the Seawolves to host Cal State San Marcos in men’s basketball. It was Pack the Den night, an event to encourage students to show Seawolf pride at home basketball games. In fact there were 275 people in attendance for the contest. However, the game did not go as the Seawolves had planned, as they fell to San Marcos with a final score of 84-59.

The Seawolves defense could not contain CSU San Marcos senior guard Blake Seits, as he torched them with 27 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 steals. Also for San Marcos, junior guard Greg Milton scored 16 points and junior forward Tyrone Nesby added 12 points of his own. For the Seawolves, only one player broke double digit points and it was freshman forward Jaylen Wells with 20. 

“I was able to get to the basket and finish, or draw a foul to get to the free throw line,” said Wells. “On top of that, my teammates were finding me for open looks on cuts and fast break opportunities.”

Wells has been the silver lining for the Seawolves amid an generally rocky season for the team. As a true freshman and one of the youngest players on the court, he has been able to lead the team in scoring, averaging 12.6 points per game, and 5.8 rebounds a game. Wells has certainly made a splash in his first season at SSU and the program will surely build around him for future seasons.

“Jaylen Wells has been a consistent bright spot for us this season,” said Shayewitz. “As just a freshman, he has proven he can play with the best in our league.” 

SSU knew they were in for a tough matchup as CSU San Marcos has a record of 16-4 overall and 12-4 in CCAA play. This record has them sitting in third place among other CCAA basketball programs, while SSU sits last in the standings, via goccaa.org. According to SSU’s head coach Richard Shayewitz, San Marcos is even tougher of a matchup than their record shows.

“San Marcos is a top notch team in our league and in the country,” said Shayewitz. “We competed for 28 minutes and we ran out of gas. Hats off to them for making a lot of tough shots.”

This tough loss comes in the second to last regular season game in what has been a rough season for the Seawolves. They currently have a record of 3-26 on the season and 3-19 in CCAA play. After losing the last game of the season to Cal State Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 26, the SSU men’s basketball team is done for the season.

“This was a tough season coming in and teaching the group my system along with dealing with the inconsistency of COVID-19,” said Shayewitz. “We often had players missing practice and games, and went through a stretch where we didn’t have our full roster for over a month. Hats off to our group who has been resilient all year and never gave up.”

After a difficult and overall unsuccessful season for the Seawolves, they will head into the offseason looking to build on the positives from the season. Hopefully with more consistency and continuity the team will be able to make improvements before the next season. Look for Jaylen Wells and the rest of the men’s basketball team to try and make a splash in the CCAA next season.