By Emma Yuan (@Emthereporter) — Reporter
San Jose State’s women basketball team showed a lot of heart but lost 84-64 to Wyoming.
The Spartans had trouble scoring points overall but Ella Ogier, Cyndi Lewis and Sydney Richards shone in the quality of their play and team spirit.
SJSU won the jump ball, leading to Ogier making a second chance 3-pointer to score the first points of the game.
Lewis managed to steal the ball in the first quarter and make a layup, taking the score to 5-5.
For the rest of the game, the Spartans struggled to keep up with Wyoming.
By the end of the first quarter, SJSU lagged 30-20 and the gap only continued to grow.
Richards put her heart out there, offering high fives to her teammates as Spartans took shots at the foul line.
“Definitely noticing hard work, she’s [Richards], not just her, she’s in the gym every day exercising and it seems like it’s paying off,” Lewis said.
SJSU continued to miss most of its jumpers and layups for much of the second quarter. The Spartans ended the half lagging 56-32.
To try and cheer up the less than 20 people in the audience, the winter pep band chanted, “Wyoming’s not a state. Wyoming’s not a state.”
Dac the SJSU Duck mimed along from behind using a large loaf of foam bread, swinging the prop back and forth like the horns of the band.
During the second half, the Spartans moved more fluidly as a team. Even though the score gap didn’t improve, teammates exchanged more high fives in passing or reassuring pats on the back.
“We’re focusing on those defensive rebounds and you can see that we did good in that stat,” said head coach Jamie Craighead Turner.
After an unclear strain, Deja Ross limped off the court on the supportive shoulders of Ogier and A’tyanna Gaulden. Ross did return to play a few minutes later.
Craighead Turner consistently called timeouts throughout the game while Wyoming called none.
“Coach calls timeouts to rest the team, to keep everyone fresh,” said Lewis.
The team rallied with a 10-0 run over 3 plus minutes to close out the third quarter.
“I try to do everything for my teammates,” Lewis said.
In the first minute of the fourth quarter, Alani Fluker made a layup with the assist from Stephanie Torres. Ross, seeming to have shaken off whatever had left her bent over, also scored a layup.
In the final seconds of the game, Ogier sank two free throws to put SJSU’s final points on the board.
The next women’s basketball game is away on Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. against San Diego State.
