Nathan Canilao (@nathancanilao) – Basketball Beat Reporter
San Jose State men’s basektball took its first loss of the season on Thursday night to Hofstra University 85-76 at the Provident Credit Union Event Center.
Sophomore point guard Alvaro Cardenas led the way for SJSU, scoring 17 points and adding 5 assists.
Sophomore forward Tibet Görener scored 17 points while shooting 5-10 from behind the three-point line.
“It was a disappointing night,” SJSU head coach Tim Miles said. “To do well for 30 minutes and not finish the game well at all… You gotta give credit to Hofstra.”
The Spartans got into a rhythm early to start the game. At the 12:44 mark of the first half, SJSU went on a 15-3 run to take a 26-15 lead early.
The Spartans’ hot shooting from the three-point line helped them go into the halftime break with a 41-31 lead.
SJSU shot 50% from the field in the first half and went 7-of-12 from beyond the arc. The Pride were cold from the three-point line, shooting 4-of-19 from downtown.
SJSU picked up right where they left off in the second half. They made four of their first five shots and had Hofstra on their back heels as the Pride went into a passive 2-3 zone to start the half.
The Pride started to make their run with just over 15 minutes left in the game.
Down 11 with 14:07 left in the second half, Hofstra stormed back and cut the Spartan lead to two with 7:32 left in the game.
The Pride went on a 22-17 run from that point and closed out the Spartans on SJSU’s home court.
Junior shooting guard Omari Moore had a rare down-game for SJSU.
Moore committed four turnovers in the second half and five total. He shot 41% from the field for a quiet 17 points.
Miles said he was disappointed that the team couldn’t get a stop down the stretch.
“I wasn’t pleased because we weren’t getting any stops even though we were scoring,” Miles said. “And then we dried up a little bit. We made some mistakes, missed some open looks and we took some tougher shots too.”
Sophomore guard MJ Amey missed Thursday’s game due to injury and the Spartans were down a ball-handler off the bench.
Freshman guard Leo Torbor saw some minutes on the floor in the second half to relieve Cardenas and Moore, but was a -8 when he was on the floor.
Miles said not having Amey on the floor meant minutes went long for Cardenas and Moore.
“Not having MJ… I think it fatigued our guards a little bit,” Miles said. “I don’t think anyone focuses well for 40 minutes unless they’re an extraordinary player and I’m playing [Cardenas and Moore] 37, 38 minutes.”
Up next, SJSU men’s basketball will go on the road to take on Northern Colorado University at 2:30 p.m. at Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley, Colo.