By Austin Badzik (@austinbadzik15):
San Jose State’s men’s basketball team lost in a thriller against Denver in the final of minute of Tuesday’s night game, 58-56.
The Pioneers were able to steal a victory from the Spartans on their home court last season 74-69.
Denver came out strong in the first half hitting from all over, while San Jose struggled to find their rhythm in the first half only putting up just 18 points.
Denver had three players combine for 56 of the team’s 58 points.
Junior guard Joe Rosga, Denver’s leading scorer on the season had his way with the Spartans in this one with 23 points and four rebounds. Senior guard Jake Pemberton added 20 points of his own and senior center Daniel Amigo filled up the stat sheet with 13 points, 5 assists and 6 rebounds.
Denver struggled from the field shooting 31.5 percent, however the team was able to connect from three as they shot 8-19 at 42 percent.
The Spartans made a late second half surge putting up 38 points and outscoring the Pioneers by 13 in the half. They came all the way back to tie things up 49-49 at one point. Despite the team’s late comeback it wasn’t enough as the Spartans ended up falling short.
There were multiple opportunities for the team to comeback as the team had two chances to tie or even win the game in the final seconds. Freshman guard Nai Carlisle missed a potential game tying layup with just three seconds left. The Spartans got the offensive rebound and had another chance to tie the game but on a missed jumper with time expiring from junior forward Ryan Welage. The junior was the team’s leading scorer with 12 points and the Spartans had four player that finished with double digits.
The Spartans will head north as they face off against Portland next. Tip off will be at 7 p.m. on Saturday.