Photo by Johnny Culbertson
By Thomas Christian (@Thomasgoatnba) — Reporter
San Jose State women’s basketball tipped off Saturday against the Colorado State Rams. The game may have been held to support breast cancer awareness, but the 4-18 Spartans desperately needed a win to support their place in the Mountain West standings as well.
A 14-7 Rams team came into Provident Credit Union Event Center looking for a season sweep of SJSU, and earned it with an 84-70 win. Colorado State’s 5-6 MW record was good for No. 7 in the conference entering Saturday, while the Spartans sat at dead last.
The Spartans matched up decently against the Rams and played excellent on the defensive end, focusing on taking away the basketball. CSU ranks No. 1 in the NCAA with 9.7 turnovers per game, while SJSU’s Ella Ogier is No. 3 in the MWC in steals.
SJSU looked to Cydni Lewis to deliver its second in-conference win of the season. Averaging 11.7 points and seven rebounds per game, she knocked down three 3-pointers in the first half.
An early key to the game was the absence of CSU’s Karly Murphy from the starting lineup. Instead, forward Cali Clark started, although Murphy checked in at the 7-minute mark, sparking a 10-3 run by the Rams.
“It was a shock [Murphy] didn’t start, she’s really in their lineup a lot. When she came in, it was kinda like we forgot the scouting report,” said SJSU head coach Jamie Craighead Turner.
For Colorado State, guards Upe Atosu and McKenna Hofschild formed a two-headed monster on offense, scoring 24 and 23 respectively in their last time out. Hofschild is also an excellent passer, on pace for a CSU record 190 assists on the season.
“She is one of the best point guards on the West Coast, and also in the Mountain West,” said Craighead Turner. “She can take over a game if she needs to, and put a lot of pressure on our defense over and over again.”
The score was 38-30 Rams at halftime, the Spartans played catchup for most of the first half. Unable to penetrate inside, the Spartans were forced to rely on 3-point shooting from Lewis and Sidney Richards.
The Rams’ best scorers Atosu and Hofschild scored 12 points apiece for CSU at halftime, using an interior-based attack to great success. The Spartans held pace, trimming the deficit before the first half ended. “It gave us some momentum, we knew the shots were gonna fall so we just had to keep shooting,” Lewis said after the game.
The Rams’ Karly Murphy picked up a third foul early in the second half, taking her off the floor and allowing the Spartans to go on a nice little run to trail, just 48-43. With Murphy off the floor, the Spartans switched tactics and got physical, relying on the interior points and the foul line to inch closer.
Hofschild, then fed up with SJSU’s run, answered back by converting an and-1, followed by a layup and a 3-pointer in rapid succession. Going into the fourth quarter, the Spartans still trailed 61-53.
An Ella Ogier three-point play got the Spartans back to within one posession of the Rams halfway through the fourth quarter, scaring CSU enough for Karly Murphy to check back in.
That sparked a 14-4 run in which the Rams rode quality interior play on both ends to close the door on any potential Spartans’ comeback. Leading the game in scoring, CSU’s McKenna Hofschild poured in 32 to go along with Atosu’s 22. For SJSU, Lewis led her squad with 17.
When asked about the Spartans’ defense on Hofschild, Spartan Stephanie Torres said, “team defense is a pride thing. We try to get each stop and win each possession.” She added that “fouls down the stretch with the refs getting into our head a little, we knew we had to stop them, and we didn’t.”
The Spartans next square off against Wyoming on Feb. 14 in San Jose.