After going 34 days straight without a win, the San Jose State women’s basketball team notched a convincing 77-59 win over Utah State University on Saturday at home at Provident Credit Union Event Center.
Freshman guard Sabrina Ma scored a team-high 21 points while shooting 5 for 8 from behind the three-point line. Senior guard Jada Holland had an all-around game, recording 12 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
“I just think they wanted to win,” said SJSU head coach April Phillips. “They came out and really stuck to the game plan.”
The Spartans got off to a good start as they took a 10-point lead at the end of the first quarter. SJSU forced eight turnovers and knocked down four 3-pointers to take a 24-10 lead.
A 10-0 run by the Spartans early in the second quarter shifted the momentum of the game and forced Utah State to call a timeout and regroup.
At halftime, the Spartans held a 38-25 lead.
SJSU continued their momentum into the third quarter when Holland found sophomore guard Sidney Richards under the basket.
Richards was able to finish through a Utah State defender for a bucket and a foul. The SJSU crowd cheered loudly as Richards was able to extend the Spartan lead to 21.
The Spartans were able to widen the point gap to 31 in the third quarter and looked to cruise to an easy victory in the fourth.
Utah State came all the way back to cut the deficit to 11 with just over three minutes left in the game.
Phillips was visibly angry at her players during the Utah State’s fourth quarter run and told the team during timeouts that they needed to refocus.
“I think part of immaturity is when you're up that much, then you want to start doing something different,” Phillips said. “And I was like ‘no, stop it.’ And thankfully, this time we were up enough to withstand that moment.”
The Spartans eventually closed out the Aggies late in the fourth quarter in part because of Ma’s play on both ends of the floor.
SJSU was able to get high defensive production from everyone on the floor. They recorded a season-high 17 steals in the win.
“I think [defense] was obviously a part of the game plan, but it's also just kind of who we want to be and what our identity needs to be,” Phillips said.
The Spartans won their first conference game under Phillips and snapped a 15-game losing streak. Ma said she was happy to get her first conference win as a freshman.
“It feels really good,” Ma said. “I've been wanting this for so long. We've been wanting this for so long as a team and to finally get it now, I think we're in a good spot.”
Up next, the Spartans will have another home game and face the University of Nevada, Reno (7-12, 4-4 MW) at 6 p.m Thursday.
