The San Jose State men’s basketball team won its final home game of the season 63-46 against Colorado State University on Tuesday night, at Provident Credit Union Event Center.
The Spartans celebrated their seniors that included shooting guard Omari Moore, forward Sage Tolbert III and forward Kellen King.
Sophomore point guard Alvaro Cardenas led SJSU with 16 points and 5 assists. Moore recorded 14 points, and sophomore forward Trey Anderson had 13 points.
Moore struggled in the first half, scoring just 6 points while shooting 2 of 10 from the field.
Cardenas kept the Spartans afloat as he scored 11 points in the first half alone.
SJSU went on a 7-0 run with five minutes remaining in the first half to take a five-point lead going into intermission.
Defensively the Spartans held Colorado State to 9 of 26 shooting from the field at the half and 3 of 11 from behind the arc.
The Spartans had a good defensive half, recording 5 blocks and 6 steals, including 2 steals from Cardenas and 2 steals from Moore.
At halftime, SJSU led 27-22.
Despite the shaky first half, Moore hit his stride in the second half as he scored 8 of his 14 points in the final 20 minutes of the game.
At the 14 minute mark of the second half, the Rams cut the Spartans’ lead to three on a Jalen Lake 3-pointer.
From there, the Spartans closed the game on a 28-14 to cruise to a big win on senior night.
Moore said it was important to win on his senior night and that his coaches were telling him it’s a night he’d never forget.
“Nobody wants to lose on your senior night,” Moore said. “It was really important for us to go out here and get a dub, and even bigger than senior night, these last two games are huge for us in seating for this tournament.”
Anderson said this game is vital to continuing the team spirit down the final stretch of the season.
“We stay together through the ups and downs, we struggled together, we’ve won tough games together,” Anderson said. “We know these two games are huge for us to continue to keep building our season.”
The 63 points the Spartans put up tied a season low for points scored in a win, but helped propel them to a 12-3 home record.
“That was a big thing for these guys to establish an excellent home court advantage,” SJSU head coach Tim Miles said. “I think that’s a measure of these guys’ commitment and who they are and what they stand for.”
Miles said he will miss all the seniors and gave credit to Omari Moore for his play thus far.
“Omari is a guy that is going to be one of the greatest players that San Jose State has ever seen and will ever see,” Miles said. “I’m grateful to have coached him, I love coaching him and to watch him go out and win like that tonight and the crowd all stand up and cheer for this team was really cool to watch.”
SJSU’s regular season finale is scheduled for Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at the Clune Arena in Air Force Academy, Colorado as the Spartans are scheduled to face Air Force. SJSU defeated Air Force earlier this season 85-52 on Jan. 24.
