Thursday, February 26, 2015

It's Nevada on Saturday afternoon in Reno

The Spartans head to Reno next to take on Nevada in a Saturday afternoon pairing. The Wolf Pack won the earlier matchup 60-57 on February 7.

Nevada is coming off a loss to Air Force and a 14-32 free throw shooting night. Coach David Carter's major domo player A.J. West shot 5-15. Chris Murray offers the game report.

Here's our earlier preview:

"Nevada is a Mountain West Conference team having trouble shooting the basketball accurately. Sound familiar? Losers of seven straight, the Wolf Pack demise is because the braintrust just hasn't done an adequate job of recruiting the past few years. There aren't even any Luke Babbitt-lites or Armon Johnson's on the court in Reno.

Yet the guys from The Biggest Little City in the World lost by just two points to San Diego State a few days ago and they beat UNLV in Vegas by two back in early January. Go figure. They also pummeled Air Force by 18.

6-foot-9, 235 A.J. West is the leading scorer but at a meager 12.5 points per game. His 10.1 boards an outing gives him a double-double average. However, two notes need to be made here: a sizeable portion of his scoring is coming off his offensive rebounding prowess (an amazing 120 versus 81 defensive) and because he has so little competition from his teammates -- the next-in-line is 3.6 a contest coming from a guard. West also has 54 shotblocks to his credit but that shouldn't be much of a factor in Saturday's matchup.

Generally, there is nobody else on Coach David Carter's roster who consistently produces. 6-foot-6 D.J. Fenner, 6-foot-4 Marqueze Coleman, 6-foot-3, 205 Tyron Criswell and 6-foot-3 Michael Perez are all capable of 15 points each time out but they rarely do so as a duo or threesome. Plus, Criswell is the only one in that group shooting above 40% (he's at 44%).

As a team the Wolf Pack are accurate on just 26% of its three-pointers attempted and the group is underwater in steals and turnovers.

So really, who knows what to expect? Which Nevada will show up? Look for Ivo Basor to play a lot in this one in order to try and counter West."

Here's our game report:

"The opportunity was there.

Multiple times.

Nevada kept feeding the fire by misfiring at the foul line.

However, San Jose State University just couldn't quite get over the hump and fell at home 60-57 to Nevada on Saturday afternoon.

A.J. West, as expected, had a big game with 17 points and 15 boards but none of his Wolf Pack teammates could manage a plus game.

For the Spartans, Darryl Gaynor II busted out for 25 points, including 9-9 at the charity stripe, plus seven rebounds (also nine turnovers that marred his effort) and, likewise, nobody else really stepped up for SJSU.

Other Washington Square plusses: 26 free throw attempts, eight rebounds from Brandon Mitchell in 14 minutes of play, eight points, seven rebounds and three assists from Jaleel Williams.

The last 70 seconds of the game for the Spartans:

MISSED LAYUP by MITCHELL, Brandon 01:10    
REBOUND (OFF) by MITCHELL, Brandon 01:10    
MISSED FT SHOT by MITCHELL, Brandon 01:08    
REBOUND (OFF) by (DEADBALL)  01:08    
MISSED FT SHOT by MITCHELL, Brandon 01:08    
REBOUND (DEF) by MITCHELL, Brandon 01:04    
TURNOVER by GAYNOR II, Darryl 00:51    
MISSED 3 PTR by MUHAMMAD, Rashad 00:24    
REBOUND (OFF) by MUHAMMAD, Rashad 00:24    
GOOD! FT SHOT by MUHAMMAD, Rashad 00:15 54-58 
MISSED FT SHOT by MUHAMMAD, Rashad  00:15    
REBOUND (OFF) by WILLIAMS, Jaleel 00:15    
MISSED LAYUP by WILLIAMS, Jaleel 00:14    
REBOUND (DEF) by MITCHELL, Brandon 00:10    
GOOD! FT SHOT by WILLIAMS, Jaleel  00:09 55-58 
MISSED FT SHOT by WILLIAMS, Jaleel 00:09    
REBOUND (DEF) by GAYNOR II, Darryl 00:07    
GOOD! LAYUP by GAYNOR II, Darryl 00:04 57-59" 

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