The San José State University men’s basketball team hosted the fiery University of Nevada, Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels team Saturday night at the Provident Credit Union Event Center in San José and got trampled 77-65.
San José State honored Claude Gilbert, a coach for SJSU football from 1973 to 1980,
who died on Jan. 6.
In order for San José State (8-12, 1-6 MW) to battle with the Runnin’ Rebels (10-9, 3-4 MW), they had to shut down UNLV’s five focal points of its offense.
SJSU junior guard Myron Amey, Jr. led the way for the Spartans with 18 points on 50% shooting.
“I’m a passionate person about the game,” Amey said. “I have kind of learned over the years just how to compose myself and stay mentally locked in. I know how much the team needs me.”
UNLV senior forward Kalib Boone, senior guard Luis Rodriguez, freshman guard Dedan Thomas, Jr., senior forward Keylan Boone and senior forward Jalen Hill all averaged double digits in scoring coming into Saturday night’s game.
Matching SJSU’s Amey was UNLV’s Keylan Boone with 18 points.
The big five offense players for the Runnin’ Rebels combined for 26 points in the second half to solidify UNLV’s ferocious comeback.
SJSU head coach Tim Miles said the whole second half was sort of a grind.
“They went super small and we really couldn’t make them pay. They could change their lineup, go small, switch on us and we couldn’t really get by anybody (exposed),” Miles said. “Good adjustment by them.”
Although the Runnin’ Rebels added seven new players to their roster this season, their depth of their roster showed and outscored the Spartans 19-5 off the bench.
SJSU junior guard Alvaro Cardenas stepped up for his team after the game, both taking credit for the loss as well as commending his bench players.
“Those young guys, we definitely need them to step up a little bit and give us a little more help,” Cardenas said.
By the 14:19 mark of the first half, UNLV’s defense was late on closeouts and didn’t get back fast enough in transition and SJSU capitalized by not missing a shot at that point, literally.
SJSU went on an early 9-3 run and forced UNLV’s first timeout at the 17:42 mark of the first half, setting the tone early in the game.
The Spartans held their own defensively, which in turn led to fast break points and an addition to the Spartan surge until the final five minutes of the first half.
SJSU held UNLV to 28.6% on 3-pointers and UNLV aided them by shooting 28.6% on free throws.
UNLV turned the burners on in the final three minutes of the half, slowing SJSU‘s landslide of a half to bring the game to 39-32.
The SJSU offense went ice cold in the second half, as UNLV held the blue-and-gold to 20% on 3-pointers and 2-10 on the field. They then allowed UNLV to surge back into the game, giving up back-to-back 3-pointers on defense.
“Sometimes the offense is playing better than the defense,” Tim Miles said. “It’s readiness, it’s aggression, it’s things like that. It’s that physicality and( UNLV) was really on the attack. We didn’t handle that well and we ended up fouling. You saw that one player we fouled on a 3-pointer.”
Within minutes, UNLV stormed back to take the lead at the 10:06 mark of the second half.
By the 3:49 mark, UNLV had SJSU locked down, slowing down the Spartans’ running game and when SJSU did penetrate the defense, UNLV’s shot blocking was able to stop SJSU.
The Runnin’ Rebels were able to extend the lead to double digits with one minute remaining in the game.
However, according to Cardenas, the achilles’ heel for the Spartans was their lack of tenacity on defense.
“Obviously, it’s frustrating because we’re losing so many games,” Cardenas said. “We’re just not playing defense. If we’re just not playing defense, we’re not going to win games. I think our efforts are just not there. We’ve got to do something about it.”
SJSU will face off today, Tuesday Jan. 30 at Utah State University at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan, Utah and at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, Nev. to square off against Nevada.
