By Madyson Montoya (@MadysonMontoya):
Junior Ryan Welage led San Jose State in scoring for the 17th time this season, but No. 20 Nevada topped the Spartans, 80-67, Wednesday night in Reno.
The junior forward nailed four 3-pointers to increase his career total to 153, which ties him with Tim Pierce for most three-point shots made in SJSU history.
Unlike the previous meeting this season, SJSU (2-23, 0-15 MW) had a tough time keeping up with the conference-leading Wolf Pack (24-5, 13-2 MW). The closest the Spartans got was nine points in the first eight minutes of the game.
Nevada rained in the points early, making seven 3-pointers within the first eight minutes of the game, eliminating almost all of SJSU’s confidence.
However, it was a manageable deficit as the Wolfpack led 42-29 at the end of the first half.
The second half wasn’t much better for the Spartans. The team gave up 10 points on seven second-half turnovers, something that hurts when playing the conference’s best team.
After falling 17 points behind, the Spartans picked it up with eight minutes remaining in the second half. Junior Oumar Barry came alive to tie his career-best of 12 points and put the game at 64-54.
Nevada responded quickly with another 3-pointer. Freshman Noah Baumann shaved the deficit back to 10 with a 3-pointer of his own less than a minute later. This was the closest the Spartans would get to the Wolf Pack for the rest of the game.
The Spartans were no match for Nevada’s Kendall Stephens, who had a career-high of 30 points and was 7-of-16 from downtown.
SJSU will welcome rival San Diego State to the Event Center his Saturday at 7 p.m., still in desperate search for that first conference win.