The Provident Credit Union Event Center once again hosted a nail-biter Tuesday night when the San José State men’s basketball team fell against the University of Nevada, Las Vegas 77-71.
The Spartans men’s basketball team (13-17, 6-12 MW) squared off Tuesday night against conference rival, the Runnin’ Rebels (15-13, 9-8 MW).
SJSU’s effort was epitomized when guard Josh Uduje missed a free throw to cut the UNLV lead to 71-70 with 22 seconds left in the game.
Spartans head coach Tim Miles applauded his team for a valiant effort in a game partially played with a seven-man rotation.
“I credit our guys, I think there was a real competitive spirit. We were down nine early, made a run and we just couldn’t finish (them) off,” Miles said. “I thought our defensive energy was good. We blocked shots, we got some transition (fastbreak points). If we can run offense off of offense, it’s always good.”
The Blue and Gold’s leading scorer was none other than Uduje, who scored 27 points on 9 of 15 shooting and 3 for 6 on 3-pointers.
“I credit my teammates,” Uduje said. “Guys like Latrell (Davis), Donavan (Yap) and Will (McClendon), they do a really good job of encouraging me, encouraging the team. That kind of encouragement is all you need as a basketball player to get back to playing how you know you can.”
SJSU forward Sadraque NgaNga sparked some much-needed energy defensively in addition to Uduje’s offense, pushing the Spartans’ second-half comeback and flipping the UNLV lead to a 54-52 SJSU lead with 8:55 remaining in the game.
However, the X-factor for SJSU was none other than sophomore guard Davis, who scored 16 points in the contest and went 4 for 9 from beyond the 3-point arc.
“We were playing with energy, we just got stops. It just changed the whole energy of the game,” Davis said. “We were getting offensive rebounds, we dialed in on the second chance points.”
Miles is very high on his young and emerging star, Davis and touted him as a key cog in the Spartans’ offensive unit.
“Latrell Davis has really emerged as a bona fide candidate for sixth man of the year in our league. He had some down moments and really made some big plays for us,” Miles said.
Uduje, as he always does, found his way onto the scoreboard, igniting early in the second half, starting 4 for 4 from the field and scoring the Spartans’ first 10 points early in six minutes.
The Blue and Gold’s defensive anchor, Robert Vaihola, is out for the foreseeable future with a knee injury and was previously listed as doubtful for Tuesday night’s matchup, according to a FOX Sports report.
The home team suffered a scare when guard Donavan Yap Jr. left the game and did not return.
“You never want to see anybody limp off the floor,” Uduje said. “It was quite scary, honestly. He’s such a big part of our team. It’s tough losing him because of the way he controls the tempo.”
As iron sharpens iron, the Spartans tested their powerful run-and-gun offense against a prolific defense of UNLV.
A run-and-gun offense is SJSU’s traditional style of play, insisting on a frenetic pace and lots of shots. This style of play is typically used against bigger or less athletic teams.
The Runnin’ Rebels team featured a polished, tough defense that held its previous four opponents to 55.3 points per game while limiting them to 36.8 percent shooting.
In an earlier meeting, SJSU fell to UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas 79-73, but came close and into their own offensively, with five different Spartans scoring double-figures in that game.
Despite the tendency to shoot the lights out the Spartans managed to tango with the Runnin’ Rebels’ offense.
SJSU managed to move the ball with prose, getting paint touches and beating a great defensive team in UNLV with ball movement, tallying 8 assists on 13 made field goals in the first half of play.
Gradually, the ball movement paid off, as SJSU’s shots started to fall as it managed to stay within striking distance, taking a 35-31 deficit into halftime.
The San José State Spartans have a bye week, then are scheduled to play the Colorado State University in Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colorado on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. (PST).
