CARSON—
Colten Kresl scored 16 points and recorded six assists, but it was
Jordan Hilstock who came through in the end for the Cal State Dominguez Hills men's basketball team when he blocked a last-second shot to preserve a 66-63 conference-opening win over San Francisco State Thursday night at the Torodome.
With merely four seconds left in the game, the Gators (2-2, 0-1 CCAA) in-bounded the ball from the baseline and the ball went into the hands of Zane Paddon, whose attempt on a game-tying three at the buzzer was slapped away by Hilstock.
It was an even matchup. Although the Toros had led for 24 minutes, the game saw 13 lead changes and five times it tied. Both sides never had a double-digit lead and had made 11 free throws on a combined 33 attempts. SF State made 17 while the Toros (3-2, 1-0 CCAA) made 16. In addition, the Toros shot 40 percent from the field, the Gators 38.6 percent.
Andrew Whitsett finished with 11 points while
Kaden Bradley and
Armstrong Ojunkwu both had 10.
Linton Acliese led the effort for the Gators with 23 points and five rebounds.
SF State's largest lead in the game (5) came with 5:31 left in second half. The Toros sliced the deficit to two when
Alex Garcia connected a 3-pointer at the five-minute mark. Whitsett would leap the Toros over the Gators one last time with a free throw followed by a clutch layup 30 seconds later. Whitsett's second bucket with 1:37 left proved to be the difference in the game as neither team couldn't get any point on the board from that point on.
The Toros had a 36-31 lead at the half. They shot 42.3 percent around the perimeter and went a perfect 8-for-8 on the charity stripe during that period.
Dominguez Hills makes a brief road trip to Turlock to play undefeated Stanislaus State in the Warriors' home opener Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The Warriors are coming off having defeated Chico State 74-66 tonight.
