(Stephanie Torres Photo by San Jose State Athletics)
By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) – MBB Beat Reporter
In a game of inches, the half foot difference in height between San Jose State’s Stephanie Torres and Boise State’s Trista Hull is more comparable to a yard. Hull was in the paint backing Torres to create an easy post up that would’ve given the Broncos a one point lead with 30 seconds left.
The advantage went to the size of the fight in the dog, not the size of the dog in the fight.
When the ball found its way into the paint aimed for Hull, Torres forced a deflection that led to an A’tyanna Gaulden steal.
“It’s probably very mental,” Torres continued. “I know it’s annoying when someone much smaller than you is all over you.”
Torres’ pesky play exists in the background behind an electric block by Cydni Lewis with four seconds left that curbed the 13-game losing streak.
It’s a detail that can’t be found on social media or in the box score, but was a seismic shift that set up the big moment.
Breaking the losing streak required lockdown defense late in the game and a spark off the bench. Torres provided both.
With 2:34 remaining in the first quarter, Torres sniped back-to-back 3-pointers to flip the Spartans’ fortune from down five to up one.
“I feel like it starts with energy and it’s contagious,” Torres explained.
The energy spread like wildfire for the Spartans and Torres from that moment on. Her 16 points were three shy of a season high and a nice bounce back for the junior from Orlando.
While struggling to find paydirt she had a meager total of 17 points in the previous six games combined.
Solid bench play has been an achilles heel for SJSU. Ella Ogier and Megan Oberg have been carrying the brunt of the workload on offense and Torres’ play served as much needed.
Breaking free from the shackles of a losing streak is an incalculable amount of liberation.
That liberation breeds hunger for more excellence.
“In practice we are competing way harder,” Torres said. “We are just ready to go and have this mindset that we can win every single game after this.”
The pinnacle of the win was the bedlam in the locker room.
“In the room it was just ‘leave the past in the past’. This is a fresh start,” Torres said.
Amidst the 14 seconds of chaos was Torres moving a chair to the side so no one tripped over it and suffered an unfortunate injury. This is great awareness and vision you can’t coach. It’s in the DNA or it isn’t.
“I don’t even know why I threw that chair,” Torres said.” It was right next to me, we were all jumping, the water was on the floor so I just threw it out the way.”
Torres was also embracing head coach Jamie Craighead Turner emphatically.
“She is our rock … as much as we deserved this win she definitely deserved it,” Torres said and added later that “we all needed to be celebrated and it was one of those moments where she needed to be celebrated, too.”As water in the locker room evaporates, the excitement from ending the losing streak now develops into determination to build a winning streak.