Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
It was a tale of two halves for SJSU men’s basketball. Well, second halves that is.
SJSU was cursed with self-inflicted errors in the final 20 minutes of its recent loss to Pacific, blowing a 17-point lead while turning the ball over 10 times.
Even with the poor play, forward Sage Tolbert III stepped to the free throw line to either force overtime or give the Spartans the lead with seven seconds left.
Tolbert III missed both and the Spartans, who didn’t have a timeout, couldn’t get another shot up after Trey Anderson secured the offensive rebound.
The final seven seconds epitomized a day plagued by forehead smacking mistakes.
“We still get the offensive rebound and we still can’t finish it and get it up there again,” said head coach Tim Miles following the Spartans 59-58 loss.
The Spartans looked like the complete opposite of the team who took charge down the stretch in its upset over a strong Santa Clara just a week prior.
In the second half, SJSU men’s basketball turned the ball over five times – on pace with Miles’ goal of 10 per game – hit 11 of 12 from the charity stripe and guard Omari Moore scored 19 of his 24 points in the final second half.
The fiery and scoring-obsessed Moore from Santa Clara was timid and out of sorts in Stockton.
“He will definitely bounce back and all great players have games like that so we totally understand,” said MJ Amey.
Moore, who averages 13.8 points per game, finished with seven points on 3-7 shooting and turned the ball over three times.
Pacific was undeniably excellent at keeping him from getting downhill.
At his best Moore, turns driving lanes into a runway fit for a 757 private jet. But last Saturday, the Tigers canceled all flights.
Against Santa Clara, Moore’s aggressiveness to the basket got him 10 points in the paint along with seven free throw attempts. On Saturday, Moore was timid going to the basket due to the Tigers’ defense as he garnered just four paint shots and one free throw attempt.
“You got to look at how he’s been doing this whole season,” said Amey. “He has multiple 20 point games already and that’s a guy we love to have on our team and we are blessed to have him.”
The “headscratchers” on offense as Miles put it were just one half of the blown lead.
“It was more of we lost the game than they won it,” said sophomore point guard Alvaro Cardenas who had five turnovers, but led with 17 points.
The other half being a less than stellar defensive effort.
“It reminds me of the Hofstra game,” reminisced Miles. “We have a lead, here comes the team with momentum, starts making outside shots and we kind’ve got a little more timid … you have to stay the aggressor.”
The Tigers drained 6-11 threes in the second half. Far better than Broncos, who SJSU held to a 3-12 mark in the second half.
Pacific weathered the storm of a 3-11 showing in the first half and turned into a team that Mile said can look like the “Golden State Warriors.”
Its dismal shooting didn’t align with a squad who’s the best three-point shooting team in the West Coast Conference and 27th best in the nation at 39.8%.
“At halftime I felt like we were lucky to be ahead what we were,” commented Miles if he expected the Tigers to find their footing from three.
Now comes the question of how much of last Saturday’s disappointment comes from riding the high of Santa Clara’s win. One that stood as the biggest of the Miles era.
“I think one more than anything certainly those big wins maybe you get a little soft, right. You’re like, ‘Oh now we’ve got it figured out,’” said Miles.
Miles suspected the 18 total turnovers and lackadaisical play was related to SJSU coming off finals week.
Overall, the sentiment shared by Miles and the team was that Saturday’s embarrassing loss “was just one of those days.”
“It happens in basketball. It’s what you got to love about the games sometimes, you got to love the struggle,” said Amey.