By Jarra Gojolo — Managing Editor
San Jose State women’s basketball player and reigning Mountain West Newcomer of the Year Ayzhiana Basallo is entering the transfer portal, the guard announced Tuesday on Instagram.
The 5-foot-5 junior began her Spartan career in 2019 after transferring from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she won Big West Conference Sixth Player of the Year in her lone season there.
Basallo averaged 18.5 points per game in her first season in San Jose. She also established herself as one of the premier sharpshooters in the Mountain West, making 45.4 percent of her three-pointers and 92.5 percent of her free throws in 2019-20.
She was the leading scorer for a SJSU team that finished with a 19-12 record that year, its best in four decades. For her efforts she was awarded All-Mountain West and Mountain West Newcomer of the Year awards.
The Spartans’ truncated 2020-21 season began rough for Basallo after she tore her ACL in their Dec. 21 conference opener against Utah State.
Weeks later, the team announced the cancellation of the rest of its season because of COVID-19 issues.
The junior’s announcement is another addition to the wave of departures that have hit the Spartans in recent weeks. Arguably the biggest of those previous departures was senior forward Tyra Whitehead, who announced her exit in February to pursue a professional career.
Head coach Jamie Craighead’s team will have a very different look when it returns to action in the fall.
The Spear will update this story as more information becomes available.
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