San Jose State University men’s basketball team fell to Indiana State University 86-57. This marks the sixth consecutive loss for the Spartans.
Sycamores’ sophomore guard Clayton Hughes opened the night with a 3-pointer for Indiana State, 26 seconds into the game. SJSU answered back with a 3-point field goal of its own by sophomore guard Noah Baumann to tie up the game
shortly after.
As the game progressed, the Spartans’ defense failed to defend the Sycamores’ 6-0 run to keep Indiana State in the lead 9-3 with 16:35 left in the first half.
Junior guard Brae Ivey thought the team was intimidated by the Sycamore’s performance and thought they didn’t play as well as they should.
“It was more we got of to a slow start. We came out intimidated and we didn’t come with the initiative that we needed to have,” Ivey said.
The Spartans struggled to score until senior center Oumar Barry hit one of the two free throw shots to end the SJSU scoring drought.
Both teams continued to fight, but the Sycamores dominated the Spartans for most of the first half. The Sycamores constantly broke through the Spartans’
zone defense.
By the 8:20 mark in the first half, the Sycamores led 21-14. The Sycamores continuously got out on the break, constantly knocking down 3-point shots in the first half.
For the next six minutes, the Sycamores went on a 13-0 run to extend their lead to 34-14. The Spartans’ defense had no answer for Indiana State’s two starting guards, Tyreke Key and Hughes as the two combined for 23 total points in the first half.
The Sycamores led by as many as 24 points in the first half as they led 44-20 over the Spartans heading into halftime.
In the second half, the Spartans scored first after Ivey made field goal, looking as if they may come out of their shooting slump from the first half. However, the Sycamores carried their momentum and lights out 3-point into the second half. At the 17:27 mark, Indiana State built their lead up to 50-25.
The Spartans failed to keep up with the Sycamores. With 13 minutes left, the Sycamores racked up their biggest lead of the night at 34 points, leading the Spartans 62-28.
Failure to grab rebounds and protect the paint doomed the Spartans for much of the second half . The team was out-rebounded 39-23 and outscored in the paint 50-20 by the end of the game.
The Sycamores exploited every weakness in the Spartans’ defense and held on for the wire-to-wire 86-57 victory.
Barry thought the team didn’t play as well and lacked energy.
“They’re a pretty good team. We just got to give it to them and they were ready to play and won,” Barry said. “We got to make sure the coming game we are ready to play from the start.”
Head coach Jean Prioleau had a similar opinion to Barry. He felt their shooting woes and slow start did the Spartans in for the game.
“We did not come to play tonight. We’re better than that,” Prioleau said. “I don’t want just to say I’ll just chalk it up a bad night. We should be able to play better
than that.”
