By Sergio Valencia:
Slow starts continue to plague the Spartans for a third consecutive week, this time falling to conference leader Nevada 82-67 on their senior night.
Through the first 12 minutes of the game San Jose State only managed to score a mere seven points in what led to a Nevada 16-3 run.
“There was a lid on the basket to start the game,” said SJSU’s head coach Dave Wojick.
Meanwhile the Wolf Pack enjoyed themselves a 51.7 percent shooting performance, with two players hitting double digits in the first half.
Just like that the Spartans found themselves trailing by 23 points at the halfway point.
“It has been an issue these past five games,” said forward Brandon Clarke. “We’ve been down and it’s just very hard to climb back when you dig a hole that’s very deep.”
Like they’ve done in all those game the Spartans surged in the second half as they attempted to make a comeback.
After going scoreless in the first half, Clarke finally got on the board to start a run for San Jose State in the second half, ending his night with 13 points.
Forward Ryan Welage added to the Spartans fast second-half start by nailing back to back threes. After shooting 1-6 in the first half, the sophomore scored a team-high 16 points.
Senior guard Isaac Thornton did his best to get San Jose State the ball back, recording 10 rebounds.
“If we played two complete halves’ then it’s a totally different ball game,” Thornton said.
Even with all their efforts the Spartans could not find a way to claw themselves back into the contest and constantly let Nevada get to the basket.
“We did not defend well at all,” Wojick said. “Our defense is not there right now.”
For Thornton, forward Brandon Mitchell and guard Gary Williams Jr., this was the last game they would play at the Event Center, after being the first of Wojcik’s recruits when he began his tenure four years ago.
“When I came here I wanted to leave the program in a better place than when I got here,” Thornton said. “I wanted to be a part of that and me and some of the other guys who have been here were able to accomplish that.”