The San Jose State women’s basketball team extended its winning streak to four games after defeating the University of San Diego Saturday, 88-82, off the back of sophomore point guard Ayzhiana Basallo’s 33 points and 9 assists.
“It was a good win,” junior forward Tyra Whitehead said. “It was a win that we really, really wanted.”
The game was a tale of two halves, head coach Jamie Craighead said.
The team picked it up in the second half because she told the team during halftime to adjust to how the Toreros played and how the referees were calling the game Craighead said.
“I felt like if we could just eliminate those second-chance points and not turn the ball over that maybe we could see a change in the second half,” Craighead said. “Those are things that you as a team can control. You can box out.”
The first half was rough for the Spartans, as the Toreros led by 7 points, 31-24, and built their advantage from having 11 more points off of turnovers and 12 second-chance points from offensive rebounds.
“It was a dogfight and it challenged our toughness, and in the end, we won. So it was ugly but it was a win,” Basallo said.
Basallo spoke about the team’s strategy in the second half, which ultimately propelled it to the win.
“Coach got on us and said we needed to get stops, we needed to get on the boards,” Whitehead said. “That’s a big part of our game, is those rebounds, which is mostly my fault. So that was hard, rebounding second-chance points.”
Basallo also recognized the team’s weaknesses during the first half of the game.
“We were just giving them open looks, [so] we tried to tighten our defense up,” Basallo said. “[We] made little adjustments on offense and that’s how we went and took the lead.”
Basallo scored a season-high 33 points. As a result of her aggression, she went to the line 18 times and made 16 of her free throws.
In the second half, San Diego head coach Cindy Fisher got ejected from the game for yelling at the referees as the Spartans went on a run.
“I know it was a downfall for them and that’s when momentum changes, so that was what I was thinking,” Basallo said.
Whitehead knew this would give the team renewed motivation to win, and knew they’d have to combat that resolve.
“It lit a fire in me to play harder because I knew they were gonna throw a punch, and I needed to be able to take the punch and throw one back,” Whitehead said.
Compared to the previous game against the Buffalo Bulls, Craighead knew the Toreros would be a more difficult challenge for the Spartans.
“We took care of the ball whereas we didn’t turn it over against Buffalo, and it was more about getting to their shooters,” Craighead said. “But this is a grind-it-out team, it always has been.”
Last year, Craighead said the Toreros out-rebounded SJSU by 40.
“I’ll take this minus 7,” Craighead said.
Craighead also commented on the shots made, with SJSU taking 51 shots while the Torero’s took 77.
“The stat; that’s crazy to me,” Craighead said. “That’s a big shot differential, to think that we obviously shot the ball really well.”
After the game, Craighead expressed pride in her team. “I think we have a really good basketball team,” Craighead said. “I think that’s what we’re learning.”
SJSU hits the road to take on Cal State Bakersfield on Friday.
