San José State University’s women’s basketball team (2-1, 0-0 MW) secured its second win of the season in their home game against San Francisco State (1-2, 0-0 CCAA).
SJSU took a significant loss this past weekend against Cal, but ultimately its main guards, Rylei Waugh and Amira Brown, and forward, Finau Tonga led them to bounce back with a 92-65 win.
Tonga, a redshirt junior, has been a significant asset to the team and this game has furthered her performance.
She scored 22 points on 10-13 shooting and tallied nine rebounds, the most by a Spartan since the Mountain West tournament last season.
April Phillips is the head coach of SJSU’s team and this will be her third year coaching for the team. Phillips previously coached at the University of Texas and was a former college basketball player for Georgia Tech, according to her bio on the SJSU Spartans website.
“(Tonga is) phenomenal. She demands so much attention. And she's got such a core presence inside and she finishes well. The thing about her that makes her really lead is that she passes really well,” said Phillips.
In the first quarter, SJSU built a 17-point lead with multiple baskets from Tonga and Waugh, a sophomore at SJSU.
Waugh made a significant contribution, adding 14 points on 6-11 shooting to the Spartan surge.
The Spartans flaunted their depth on the court with nine players making their mark of double-digit minutes in the game. Their bench contributed 26 points to the overall score as well.
Tonga made nine rebounds and for Brown seven rebounds—new career heights for the two redshirt junior transfers.
“I'm coming out pressing, just trapping. Getting into the ball like getting on the floor,” Waugh said. “I think that really helped us put pressure on their guards which is why we forced them to turnovers and then that helped us offensively.”
Jasmine Singleton, a redshirt junior guard, scored a 3-pointer to begin the second quarter and Brown contributed on the glass, hauling in key rebounds and boxing out the Gator bigs.
Despite SJSU racking up points left and right, the team fouled SF State a total of 21 personal fouls, allowing SF State 23 free throws.
“I think what really killed us was those — we talk about it all the time — middle line drives, allowing the offense to get downhill to even give them the opportunity to get to the basket,” Tonga said. “We gotta play straight forward. We also have to have help side (defense) as well.”
In the third quarter, the Spartans heated up with four rebounds from Tonga and shot 46.2% from the field, finishing the quarter with a score of 71-47.
Mecca Alexander, a freshman guard from Antioch, scored the first points of her collegiate career in the final quarter of the game for SJSU, securing a win for the Spartans at 92-65—the most they have scored since last season in a game since their win against Bethesda, when they hit the century mark, according to the SJSU Spartans website.
Phillips reflected on their home loss to Cal last weekend and what helped them learn from it.
“It's just a process and, and you never want to get too high and you never want to get too low,” said Phillips. “Just being mindful of the day by day process of this team. And I think this team deserves its own opportunity and process independent of what any other team has done.”
She said that confidence is what drove the team to their success against the Gators.
Given that this is the third game of the season, the Spartans have a long way to go with games scheduled against UC Santa Barbara and Kennesaw State coming up.
“The way that our ladies came out and competed and especially rallied late … was a good measure of where our heart and our intentions are for the season,” Phillips said.
SJSU is next scheduled to duel with UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 17 at the Thunderdome in Santa Barbara, California.
