{"id":200083,"date":"2026-03-02T04:37:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/200083\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T04:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:37:26","slug":"mens-basketball-caps-off-season-with-defeat-golden-gate-xpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/200083\/","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s basketball caps off season with defeat \u2013 Golden Gate Xpress"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco State University\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team\u2019s last game of the spring season ended on a bittersweet note.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Gators\u2019 final matchup was against the California State University, Stanislaus Warriors, a team they had lost to in January. It ended 65-56 on Saturday, Feb. 28, with the team finishing last in the California Collegiate Athletic Association conference with a record of 4-24.<\/p>\n

Despite their rough season, the athletes had strong hopes for the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Guard Parsa Hadjighasemi charges a Stanislaus State Warrior during the Gators\u2019 final game of the season at the San Francisco Credit Union Gymnasium on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (Seamus Geoghegan<\/a> \/ Golden Gate Xpress)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a rough season and I think we\u2019ve grown a lot as a team,\u201d said sophomore center Evan McKnight. \u201cI was just hoping we could lay it all out and just show what we could do and go into next season with some momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both teams were hungry for one last win as they both utilized full-court pressure to neutralize the other\u2019s offense. It was back and forth early in the first half as junior forward Mason Harris powered through for an and-1 with the Gators trailing 10-9 with 16 minutes left in the half.<\/p>\n

A timeout was called with SFSU down 16-14. Head coach Vince Inglima and his players were all smiles during the timeout, enjoying the intensity they showed in their final game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Warriors were able to climb back into the game with a couple of defensive stops and missed shots by the Gators, who were unable to keep the momentum going with shots not falling for them. Playing an effective zone defensive approach, the Gators allowed open looks in the corners for the Warriors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first half ended with the Gators down 42-29. SFSU was winning the offensive battle with eight rebounds to Stanislaus\u2019 one, but they were not able to hit their shots, shooting 10-30 from the field compared to Stanislaus shooting 16-25.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sophomore forward Diego Martinez was the Gators\u2019 leading scorer in the first half, keeping the Gators afloat with 10 points. Even after missing a shot he would come back on the next possession unafraid to shoot another.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy focus is always to get buckets, that\u2019s what I do best and my coaches and teammates all believe in me and encourage me to always be aggressive,\u201d Martinez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Forwards Diego Martinez and Brian Buciak battle with a Stanislaus State Warrior for the ball during their game at the San Francisco Federal Credit Union Gymnasium on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (Seamus Geoghegan<\/a> \/ Golden Gate Xpress)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second half was more of the same for the Gators with missed shots and failed second chance opportunities. However, the Warriors\u2019\u00a0 offense began to slow down, opening up a chance for SFSU to capitalize. The Gators went on a 11-2 run in the middle of the second half with tenacious defense, finally succeeding on second chance points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The score was 55-50 with the Gators still trailing and 8:57 left to go in the second half, but the momentum stalled as they struggled with missed chances all over the floor. The game remained scoreless until the Warriors made a jumper with 5:46 remaining. The Gators\u2019 next bucket wasn\u2019t until junior forward Mason Harris\u2019\u00a0 layup with 3:21 remaining. The final points of the Gators\u2019 season were a pair of free throws from freshman guard Miles Pollard with 25 seconds left remaining in the game, not enough to close the gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sophomore guard Fed Pernell was the Gators\u2019 overall leading scorer with 12 points. Pernell spoke about some of the struggles the team had in their final home loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had some defensive breakdowns and they were the more physical team and we weren\u2019t able to match that physicality,\u201d Pernell said. \u201cWe also didn\u2019t shoot the ball as best we could, shooting 31% from the floor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a tough loss and an even tougher season, the Gators are looking forward to next season and using this season as a learning experience to improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have more experience coming in next year, but just getting more athletic and quicker on our feet, working on defense and, honestly, building a lot of strength.\u201d said junior guard Parsa Hadjighasemi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assistant coach Alex Gilat looked on the bright side of the challenging season, grateful to have experienced it in his first season coaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s hard for the players to feel it when there\u2019s so much negative feedback with the losses,\u201d Gilat said. \u201cBut being able to be on the court, be in this environment, it really is a special feeling. In the grand scheme of life, it really is a blessing. So, that\u2019s a huge takeaway for me this year.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco State University\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team\u2019s last game of the spring season ended on a bittersweet note.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-200083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}