By Nathan Canilao (@nathancanilao)- Spear Beat Reporter
After a positive non-conference schedule in which the San Jose State men’s basketball team went 9-4, there was optimism that the Spartans could have a much better season than they had in year’s past.
With wins over Santa Clara, Ball State and Northern Colorado, SJSU looked like it took a gigantic step in the right direction considering last year’s 8-23 season.
But let’s be honest. Despite SJSU’s early season success this year, some question if this is the real thing.
The Spartans on the court performed historically bad as they have not won a single tournament in the program’s history. Not in the Big Dance, the NIT or even tournaments people never watch like the CBI or CIT.
And some of that “ole Spartan way” has creeped into this season. With blown double-digit leads to Hofstra and Pacific earlier this year, the team looked better, but lacked the extra gear to put teams away late.
In Tuesday night’s contest against UNLV, for a second, it looked like the Spartans might be wetting the bed again. After holding a 13-point lead early in the second half, the Runnin’ Rebels quickly took the momentum back and even took a three-point lead late in regulation.
But the Spartans fought through and took UNLV’s best punch and countered right back. They eventually won in overtime 75-72 in what is possibly their biggest win of the season.
“Mostly the adjustments from tonight were learning from our prior mistakes,” said SJSU head coach Tim Miles.
Fresh faces stepping up
Arguably, freshman forward Garrett Anderson and sophomore forward Robert Vaihola won the game for the Spartans on Tuesday night.
Anderson, an unranked prospect out of Arizona, provided a defensive spark and hit three of the biggest free throws to put away the Runnin’ Rebels. His box score stat line from Tuesday looked something like a Steve Kerr special: six points, three rebounds, two steals and +11 on the floor.
“It feels good,” Anderson said about cracking the Spartan rotation. “It feels like the hard work I’ve put in is paying off.”
Vaihola, a transfer from Fresno State, put up a near double-double with his nine point and 13 rebound performance.
Both players proved that they belong somewhere in the rotation on a nightly basis.
Omari Moore: the ultimate iron man
Out of the 14 games Moore has played, he has played less than 30 minutes three times. He is the engine that runs this team on both ends of the floor.
Whether it’s guarding the team’s best player in crunch time, dishing to an open shooter in the corner or hammering a baseline dunk with the game in the balance, Moore has done it all for a Spartan team that needed his every second on the floor.
In Tuesday’s win against UNLV, Moore wasn’t the best scorer on the floor as he shot just 28% from the field. Despite not having a great outing from the field, Moore found other ways to be effective.
His seven assists created shots for others on the floor and his aggressiveness attacking the basket opened up opportunities for his teammates to score.
“I think our team really relies on myself to be aggressive, even if it’s not for myself, but for other people,” Moore said. “It’s definitely something I’m working on, just staying aggressive and staying involved in the game.”
On the defensive end, it was Moore who took on the challenge of guarding UNLV guard Elijah Harkless who went on a 15 point tear in the second half, but was held scoreless in overtime due to Moore taking the defensive assignment.
The Spartans have a lot of high-impact players on their team, but none have a higher impact on winning than Moore.
A step in the right direction
After the buzzer sounded on Tuesday night, one might have thought that the Spartans won the conference championship. Players jumped around, the small crowd of fans were high-fived and hugged. The energy inside Provident Credit Union Event Center just felt different.
For a program that has continually gotten used to losing, even something as small as being atop the Mountain West for a few days felt good.
But then again, it is only the first conference game of the season.
“[This win] is definitely huge for the program and it’s big for us going forward,” Moore said. “But it’s a long season though … We want to keep building on it and keep putting the league on notice.”
Even so, the win was a step in the right direction. The Spartans could have easily lost last night and it would have been an accomplishment that they scored a double-digit lead against a UNLV team who was ranked 52nd in the NCAA net rankings prior to Tuesday’s game.
When asked how it felt to be 1-0 in the Mountain West, Miles responded with a smile and said “2-0 is better, but we’ll take 1-0.”
It’s only one game, but this type of gusty win at home shows that SJSU men’s basketball is on the right track.