After coming off a 21-point loss to San Diego State on Saturday, the SJSU men’s basketball team will look to bounce back against the Wyoming Cowboys at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Provident Credit Union Event Center.
Wyoming, which is currently last in the Mountain West basketball standings with a current record of 7-14, previously had a losing streak of eight games earlier this season.
SJSU head coach Tim Miles emphasized the need for the Spartans to play solid defense on the Cowboys on Saturday.
“We have to play sound defense on them, they have a lot of offensive weapons,” Miles said. “We need a lot of three-pointers, rebounding the ball well, giving them one contested shot and getting out. ”
Wyoming has won 16 games against SJSU. The Spartans have only won once back in 2016.
SJSU currently has a 12-game losing streak against Wyoming.
Wyoming sophomore guard Noah Reynolds is ranked eighth in scoring in the Mountain West Conference, averaging 15.2 points per game.
“They have some really good players like Maldanado and they’re surrounded by some really good shooters,” said sophomore point guard Alvaro Cardenas. “So we got to stay disciplined and just stick to the game plan and keep up the energy.”
On the boards, the Spartans have been dominant, averaging 37.5 rebounds per game while the Cowboys averaged 32.9 per game.
“Just by grabbing some offensive rebounds specifically will out the team and just bringing some more energy to the game,” said senior forward Sage Tolbert III.
Coach Miles said one of the keys of the game is winning the turnover battle.
Though SJSU does not force a lot of turnovers, Wyoming turns the ball over at a high rate.
The Cowboys average 11.7 turnovers per game which is seventh in the conference.
“For us, the turnover battle is huge, because when we turn it over, we don’t play very well, for us that’s a really important thing,” Miles said. “The flip side of that is that we do not turn teams over and when we do you can see it really lifts our offense. We get way easier baskets, we get a steal into a fast break, something like that.”
Consistency has been a problem for the Spartans this season. They’ve had impressive wins over teams like Santa Clara, UNLV and Colorado State, but also have not been able to beat the best teams in the conference such as Nevada-Reno, San Diego State and Boise State.
“I feel like we just need to click as a team,” Tolbert said. “As a team we really haven’t been playing through each other and well together. We’ve been doing that a lot at home with the atmosphere with the crowd, that’s something that we will do, and that’s something we’ll bring with us on the road.”
For the Spartans, this will be a big game to get their confidence back after taking a big loss in San Diego.
“Yeah, they’re a very good basketball team,” Miles said. “Even though their record isn’t where they want it to be . . . and they got some real talent. The idea is that, you know, when you have a game, somebody’s below you in the standings, you have to take care of business at home against somebody like that.”
