Photo by Oscar Frias-Rivera
LAS VEGAS – As the final buzzer sounded on Thursday afternoon, SJSU senior shooting guard Omari Moore jumped to the SJSU bench in celebration. The Spartans just defeated the University of Nevada, Reno 81-77 in overtime in the Mountain West Championship quarterfinals.
The win meant SJSU made it to the semi finals, marking the first time since 2011 the Spartans made it to a conference semi final.
“These guys are so tough and are so together… These guys just compete and believe and do all the work that comes with those things. It’s just a fun thing to be a part of,” SJSU head coach Tim Miles said.
In the regular season, the Spartans were defeated by the Wolf Pack by an average margin of 24 points.
“This is something that you definitely look forward to,” Moore said. “Winning Conference Tournament games with a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament. We have a little bit of momentum and we just gotta keep building off that.”
Moore averaged 16.5 points, 5.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds across two games at the MW Championship tournament.
He showcased his offensive repertoire in SJSU’s win over Nevada. Moore finished with 26 points, 4 rebounds, 10 assists and 2 blocks while playing every single minute of the game including overtime.
He also moved up to the sixth most career points in Spartan history at 1,273 points passing Justin Graham (1,272) and Ryan Welage (1,258).
Moore was not the only star to shine bright in the Spartans’ win over Nevada.
Senior forward Sage Tolbert III shot 8 of 13 and recorded 20 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks in his second 20-plus point game of the season.
“We look at Nevada as a really good team. The first two losses were very bad for us. In the two games [against Nevada], I didn’t play well,” Tolbert said. “We looked at it like we owed them and now it’s the biggest moment. So, I felt like I needed to be aggressive and I let it just come to me instead of forcing it and we had a great game plan.”
With the win, the Spartans advanced to the tournament semifinals, where they faced the No. 1 seed San Diego State Aztecs.
The Spartans played the Aztecs on Jan. 28 when they got blown out 71-52 in San Diego.
Though SJSU was looking to continue its Cinderella story, San Diego State proved to be too much as they dominated in a 64-49 win.
The Aztecs came into the game dominating the Spartans from the jump.
San Diego State held SJSU to just 20 points in the first half, and the Aztecs held a 33-20 lead at halftime.
The Aztecs never lost the lead in the second half and cruised to a semifinal victory.
Moore and freshman point guard Alvaro Cardenas were held to just 11 points combined.
Sophomore forward Tibet Görener led the team in scoring coming off the bench with 15 points.
“It was good to see shots fall in. San Diego is a very gap heavy team. We are keyed on Omari. I had a couple open looks and had to knock them down,” Görener said.
Though the Spartans’ Mountain West tournament run ended, SJSU was selected to play as No. 2 seed in the Discount Tire College Basketball Invitational, where they will face No. 15 Southern Indiana University.
The tournament is scheduled from March 18-22 and the Spartans are scheduled to face the Screaming Eagles at 12:30 p.m. PDT on Saturday at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida.