By Ernie Gonzalez (@superego1012):
San Jose State women’s basketball (4-9, 1-1 MW) is on the road tonight in Las Vegas as it gets set to take on the UNLV Rebels (5-7, 0-1 MW).
Wednesday night will mark the second time sophomore point guard Taylor Turney will make her homecoming trip back home.
The Liberty High School alum had four points on 2-8 shooting in 14 minutes the last time she stepped foot at Cox Pavilion her freshman season (1/28/17) and you better believe she’ll be even more motivated this time around.
The Spartans are coming off a stale offensive performance in Colorado State Saturday as they put up just 48 points on 34 percent shooting.
It was a strange sight to see the SJSU shut down completely especially in the second half as it shot just 8-27 from the floor and just 1-8 from long range putting up just 21 points the final 20 minutes.
The three ball has been something that’s carried the Spartans early on this season, as SJSU is averaging 24 attempts from beyond the arc per game.
The good news about the more shots you take, is the more they fall. That’s been the case so far this year. SJSU is shooting an impressive 35.6 percent from deep (third in the MW), making that the would-be best three-point percentage the Spartans have in a season since the conference transition in 2012.
SJSU is second in the Mountain West in points per game (71.4), only behind the conference’s first place New Mexico Lobos (85.5), another team that relies heavily on its guards.
Meanwhile the Rebels are coming off four straight losses against top-tier programs including No. 24 Stanford, No. 5 Mississippi State, Syracuse and conference foe Boise State.
Keys tonight for SJSU include protecting its possessions, as the Spartans rank dead last in the conference in turnovers per game (18.5).
Feeding Turney also has to be a central piece of the Spartans’ game plan tonight, as she leads the conference in free-throw percentage and should be playing with an attitude tonight.
A scoring one that is. Tip off against UNLV is set for 6 p.m.