By Benny Garcia — Editor
San Jose State men’s basketball (1-0) opened the season victorious after defeating Cal State Fullerton (0-1) 78-76 Thursday night in a game that came down to the final second.
The win gave head coach Tim Miles his 400th win as a head coach.
The Spartans came out firing after winning the opening tip redshirt sophomore forward Shon Robinson opened the scoring with a two-handed slam dunk to give SJSU a 2-0 lead.
He would then score two more points which would push the Spartans’ lead to 4-0.
The Ole Miss transfer finished the game with 14 points, four rebounds and 6-for-6 on free-throw attempts.
After the Spartans jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead, they would continue to score at a high clip by knocking down a flurry of three-pointers.
Out of its 45 points scored in the first half of the game SJSU drained 8-of-15 three-pointers, as guard’s grad student Caleb Simmons and senior Trey Smith finished the first half with ten points and two three-pointers.
Most of their success in the first half might have been built off the deep ball, but the Spartans were taking whichever shot the Titans would give them, as they shot 48.5% from the field.
At the start of the second half, CSUF attempted to mount a comeback, scoring on back-to-back shots in the paint.
It seemingly didn’t matter to the Spartans, as they continued to score at a high rate, keeping the Titans further away from tying the game.
However, after Robinson drained a three-pointer for the Spartans with 7:00 minutes left in the game, SJSU finally seemed to hit a wall.
The Titans then went on an 8-0 scoring run for 2:27.
Until junior center Ibrahima Diallo broke the ice for the Spartans and extended their lead to 75-70 with 4:33 left in the game.
CSUF senior guard Damari Milstead drained a three-pointer which cut the Titans deficit down, 76-73.
As freshman guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. went up for a layup, he was fouled and made the shot which gave him an opportunity to tie the game.
After draining his one free-throw attempt, the Titans finally managed to mount a 16-point deficit.
Both teams went on a scoring drought for 2:35, each making a desperate attempt to come out on the winning end, but it was Trey Smith who would put the game away and send the Spartans home with a buzzer-beating, game-winning floater.
The Spartans will look to push their momentum as they take on Stanford University on Monday, Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. on the PAC-12 Network.
