By Mohamed Bafakih (@Moe_Fresco):
Every player saw action through the first 15 minutes of San Jose State’s 95-61 exhibition win against Dominican University of California Sunday afternoon at the Event Center.
Jaycee Hillsman led all scorers with 16 points in 15 minutes on 5-for-6 shooting off the bench to go along with a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line.
“It was good to see not only ourselves go against someone else, but see our teammates shine against other people as well,” said Hillsman. “From the first man to the 12th man, everyone was just playing well.”
Hillsman started in 18 games last year for the Spartans, but he wasn’t the lone returner to not start against the Penguins.
The starting five for the Spartans was Nai Carlisle, Noah Baumann, Isaiah Nichols, Ashtin Chastain and Ryan Singer.
Nichols started in 11 games last season as a sophomore while Chastain and Singer combined for one start. Baumann and Carlisle meanwhile are freshmen.
The exhibition matchup was about building a team for Jean Prioleau’s first game as head coach.
“[It was] to give guys a chance to be out there, to get game reps and to gain some experience,” Prioleau said.
Chastain, the 6-foot-11 sophomore, finished with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Though size prevailed the Spartans to a 49-27 rebounding advantage, it didn’t stop the big man from splitting a pair of 3-pointers.
“We’ll just let it go, we’ll see,” Chastain jokingly said on extending his range. Hillsman added he has full confidence on his teammate’s perimeter shooting.
Dominican played catch-up from the start as SJSU jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the opening minutes.
After a scoring drought for both teams, Prioleau substituted in Jalen James, Hillsman, Ryan Welage and Oumar Barry to join Keith Fisher III at the first media timeout. James started in 17 games last season while Welage started in 27 of the 30 games.
The bench had 40 of its 62 points in the first half as Welage added 10 points and James with nine.
The Spartans opened up the second half with three straight 3-pointers and finished 7-of-9 from downtown. They also went 12-for-12 from the foul line in the second frame.
Defensively, SJSU held Dominican’s top scorers from a year ago, Reverend Maduakor and Jeremiah Gray, to just 29 percent shooting as Maduakor finished with nine points and Gray with a team-high 14.
“We defended, we rebounded, we hit our numbers and I’m extremely pleased with our first game,” Prioleau said.
The Spartans will host another exhibition match against Notre Dame de Namur on Nov. 5 at 5 p.m.