Photo by Ernie Gonzalez
By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) — MBB Beat Reporter
The San Jose Spartans’ (7-18, MW 0-13) 43-39 lead over the Nevada Wolf Pack (11-13, MW 5-8) was the first lead it held going into the half all year, leading by as many as nine points at one point. Unfortunately for SJSU the same couldn’t be said for the second half.
It’s another game that started out hotter than the first bite of a hot pocket before eventually being added as the 13th scoop of defeat on the Spartans’ cone of consecutive losses.
A 9 of 18 lights out performance from three combined with a 20-9 lead in the rebound battle were the key contributors.
Tibet Gorener ended the half with three 3-pointers, which opened up Omari Moore to float rainbows over the top of the Wolf Pack like this one below for easy points.
“The guys did a great job of sharing the ball,” said SJSU head coach Tim Miles. “Anytime we can get that penetration, pitch it, make the extra pass and guys can get a rhythm, good things happen for us.”
Miles attributes the 18 assists to the Spartans ending the game on 14 of 32 shooting from three. The blown lead in the second half wasn’t a result of “hero ball”, so what happened then?
Will Baker’s 7’0” frame happened. Proving the adage that “Everything’s bigger in Texas” isn’t hullabaloo after all.
He had the first six points of the game for the Wolf Pack and like the “Hangover” was great to begin and so-so in the middle, but unlike the “Hangover”, ended phenomenally.
This was his 23rd point of the game and the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Everytime he raised his long pool noodle-like arms in the paint, you could assume an orange ball would be blanketed by a white net.
At times it looked like The Hulk was matched up on George Costanza. Seriously, he was that dominant.
“A lot of it’s just personnel, they have tremendous length, strength, height and power,” Miles said.
“When you look at what Will Baker could do, you could see why he was a top-50 recruit in the country when he signed to Texas.”
After a quiet first half, Wolf Pack guard Grant Sherfield began to make magic happen in the pick and roll, putting the Spartans on their heels and ending with 21 points.
Desmond Cambridge came into the game scoring 36 points in his prior two contests and after a strong start ended with 14 points.
Spartans fans can hang their hat on two things:
One of which is Omari Moore, who was a poster boy for offensive efficiency, leading the Spartans with 22 points on 8 of 15 shooting from the field and 4 of 7 from three.
The second is being the opponent on the floor during a hilarious missed dunk.
“Any ‘Shaqtin’ A Fool’ moment for the opposition is a win in my book,” said James Naismith (probably not real, but it’s a lot more fun to imagine it is).