By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) – MBB Beat Reporter
New Mexico dominated the Spartans 86-70 and left it as the only team in the Mountain West without a win in conference. The Pit, New Mexico’s stadium, is remembered as a place of misery rather than a palace for San Jose State.
This marks the seventh straight loss for the Spartans, but during the previous two against UNLV and Air Force the games were ultimately decided in the final minute.
UNM scored 43 in both halves thanks to a game-high 23 from Jamal Mashburn Jr. and 18 from both Jaelen House, and Jay Allen-Tovar.
Miscues from the Spartans arrived early and didn’t make their way out of the building during the 40 minutes.
Lobos scored nine unanswered to begin the game as House and Mashburn Jr. combined for all of those points.
“We let their two guards get away from us. Mashburn Jr. had a big night and House had a monumental night,” said SJSU head coach Tim Miles. “Jaelen House had 13 assistants and now those other guys are just better.”
Coming into this matchup, House needed to be lethal for the Lobos and he answered the ball with ease.
Uncontested dunks for UNM became a frequent occurrence.
“Our screen and roll defense wasn’t good enough either with our big guys. Our big guys didn’t do a good job of finding the roll man quick enough and they were able to get some easy dunk downs,” said Miles.
Earth rumbling throwdowns you see before you are parts of the game that Miles can’t live with and need to be addressed immediately in film.
On the flip side, Miles was impressed with the fighting spirit that has remained unwavering through the turbulent times.
“Our guys have a great heart and a fighting spirit and they never quit and they won’t quit and that kind of attitude only gets us better and better,” said Miles.
The inefficient shooting from beyond the arc was the chief reason why SJSU wasn’t able to catch up to UNM. The Spartans went 3 of 16 in the first half, made four of their first five in the second half, but fell back into previous poor habits and ended up going 6 of 27.
“The odds are we have a good shooting team. Good shooters are going to end up shooting the ball,” said Miles.
Spartans’ Tibet Gorener 1 of 9 shooting from three, stood out from the crowd. He’s now 4 of 22 in his last three games.
“Tibet really needs to see the ball go in and we just keep getting him good looks, but there’s some other things you can do as a shooter, too. ‘What about your ability to drive in, get fouled, get to the freethrow line to get a little bit of a rhythm?’”
Omari Moore had another great game for the Spartan scoring 14 points with seven assists and grabbed seven rebounds while going 5 of 7 from the line.
Trey Anderson is starting to appear as second in command to Moore. He had 14 points on 6 of 10 shooting and picked up major steam in the pick and roll game.
“Trey Anderson was a warrior tonight he was under the weather and he really had a big performance,” said Miles.
Rolling the boulder up the hill isn’t getting easier for the Spartans as they are set to take on Fresno State on Tuesday at 8 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.
