A’Tyanna Gaulden (Photo by Alex McCreery)
By Navin Krishnan (@NavinKthespear) – Reporter
A Mountain West Conference showdown took place Feb. 25 in the Provident Credit Union Event Center on senior night when a hungry New Mexico University Lobos (22-8 and 13-4 ) ravaged San Jose State University (4-22 and 1-14) 80-58.
The Spartans were coming off a tough loss against Air Force, during which Spartan forward Cyndi Lewis notched 1,000 points as a Spartan and with this game accomplished an SJSU-record 123 games played.
“Definitely a surreal feeling, being here for five years. Last year got canceled,” said Lewis.
Lewis is credited with being a resilient leader, despite the Spartans’ record.
“I just know her through and through. I coached [Lewis] as a young player all the way to this young woman in front of you,” said Spartan head coach Jaime Craighead Turner.
Lewis had a bittersweet senior night for the Spartans, shooting 9 for 22 from the field as a part of a Spartans offense that as a team shot 22 for 72.
“It’s tough to play [that way]. I thought we had a lot of looks that rolled in and out,” said Craighead Turner. “That kind of put us on our heels in that first half. We responded better in the second half with those two last periods. Obviously [Cyndi Lewis] kept us in it. I know she was frustrated early, but she battled through.”
New Mexico suffered a tough, heartbreaking loss at Fresno State on Feb. 23. with a missed game-winning shot in the game’s final seconds.
Unfortunately for SJSU, the Lobos’ pent-up aggression was unleashed on a mentally fatigued Spartan team.
New Mexico’s senior guard Jaedyn De La Cerda came in averaging 13.4 points per game and finished with 22 points.
The Lobos came out firing on all cylinders, starting the game on a 10-2 run.
The Spartans cut it to single digits in the first quarter, but the resiliency of the Lobos was on full display, who never hung their heads.
New Mexico wasn’t shy or unaggressive, attacking the seams of a porous SJSU defense.
“[New Mexico] is a high, efficient offense that makes a lot of shots and you have to be able to score with them,” said Craighead Turner. “They can spread you out, they can go off-the-dribble, they can all shoot it. They’re a tough matchup but I thought that we all battled.”
The intense New Mexico defense locked down and forced several bad attempts by the SJSU offense.
The Spartans managed to cut it down to single digits. They grabbed a couple offensive rebounds and attacked the basket, breaking the monotony of missed shots.
At the half, the Spartans would find themselves down big again, 44-25 as a result of sloppy ball handling, lackluster defense and missed layups.
The Spartans scratched and clawed their way through, stringing together multiple stops. But whenever SJSU started to key in defensively, the Lobos made big play after big play.
Regardless of the Lobos’ atrocious shot-selection, their offense managed to drive and beat SJSU to the rim whenever they pleased.
This was demonstrated by a 58-35 lead with three minutes left in the third quarter and the Lobos would play just hard enough to maintain the lead.
SJSU just couldn’t get the momentum in its favor on both ends and New Mexico took advantage of that.
The narrative of this loss by the Spartans was ‘too little, too late’.
“I told [Lewis] this year isn’t what we wanted it to be from the standpoint of wins and losses, but success isn’t always measured by that,” said Craighead Turner. “I’ve seen her grow.”
The Spartans’ final regular season game is Feb. 28 at Boise State University followed by the Mountain West Conference tournament.