Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
When “Jump Around” blared over the PA system at Provident Credit Union Center on Saturday afternoon, no Spartans fans sprung off their royal blue bleacher to jump around.
Instead, they remained seated and hardly moved a muscle as apathy coursed through the arena while San Jose State was caught in the middle of a 25-0 run from Nevada to end the first half down 32-15.
Perhaps the cheers from Nevada fans following Darrion Williams three-pointer blocked out the up-tempo, melodious instructions that were being belted out.
Either way, it was a memorable omen of a death spiral that sent SJSU (11-6, 2-2 MW) down a path toward a 67-40 blowout marking its first time losing consecutive games this season.
“If you come out in this game and you’re thinking, ‘Well we are pretty good. We just played Boise tough. We won a couple of other games. We are fine now,’” said SJSU head coach Tim Miles, “Well, where does that get you?”
Overall, the Spartans attempted 20 fewer shots than the Wolf Pack after they turned the ball over 20 times which led to 19 points of turnovers, were out rebounded 42-31 and allowed 14 offensive rebounds.
Entering at second-best nationwide in rebound margin (10), Nevada was the second team this season to out rebound SJSU (Arkansas during the 99-58 defeat).
Early on, it looked as if the Spartans would raise eyebrows and turn heads once again by competing – maybe even toppling – a stout conference foe.
Nevada (14-3, 4-0 MW) entered at the peak of the Mountain West, but went down 15-7 with 10:41 left in large part to Trey and Garret Anderson knocking down a combined three three-pointers.
“I think we scored the first 7 or 8 possessions and maybe thought it was going to be easy, but obviously I didn’t have us ready mentality wise,” said Miles.
Then came SJSU’s offensive nosedive to end the first half which included 10 consecutive missed shots, seven turnovers and being out rebounded on offense 10-1.
Nevada took full advantage of the poor play going up 32-15 to end the half and never let SJSU come within 14 and maintained a 20-point lead for the final 9:50 of the game.
The Spartans scored just 11 points from Omari Moore’s lay up at the 10:41 mark to his three-pointer with 11:33 left in the ball game. A stretch that included a 5-for-22 shooting spree and a 1-for-11 showing from three.
Nevada’s high energy and high flying defense around the perimeter sent SJSU down a worm hole of settled for three’s, stagnancy and sloppy play. SJSU only attempted four lay ups and finished 1-for-19 from three after starting out 3-for-5.
Defensively speaking, SJSU has nothing to be ashamed of, but it’s difficult to win when the other team is allotted 34 extra possessions.
They held the Wolf Pack six points below their season average of 73.2 and held them to a formidable 42% from the field and 32% from three.
Jard Lucas, who’s 17 points per game is third best in the conference, was held to just 12 which was second-most behind Nick Davidson’s 15.
Lucas, Kenan Blackshear and Will Baker combined for just 31 points, after averaging a combined 50 points in their previous three conference contests.
It’s a valuable silver lining that’s not far fetched. The Spartans didn’t let their offensive woes carry over to the defensive end. Minus the whole offensive rebounding fiasco.
“I equate it to, if you look at just the areas of getting the loose basketballs, rebounding and then valuing and caring for the basketball we were poor in all three of those categories,” said Miles.
In SJSU’s three biggest wins over Santa Clara, UNLV and Colorado State they outrebounded them by an average of 11 boards and averaged 10 turnovers per game.
Clearly a different story against Nevada on Saturday afternoon as SJSU finished -11 in the rebounding margin despite entering at second-best nationwide.
“They got 20 more shots than we did. That’s the problem,” said Miles. “That’s all those things we just talked about, loose balls, rebounding and turnovers. So that’s the deal. If we can equal that now you got a ball game.”
Moore, who averaged 22 points in the first conference games and posterized his way into SportCenter’s Top 10 plays against Boise State, was a shadow of his normally dominant self.
“I remember at Boise saying [to Moore], we were struggling a little bit, I’m like, ‘If you don’t score no one else is going to,’” said Miles. “That’s a lot to say to a kid, right? And it wasn’t just coach speak I really felt it to be true at the time and he took over.”
Moore finished with 10 points, six turnovers and a plus minus of -24.
It wasn’t just Moore who struggled, as SJSU shot 15-for-45 (33%) from the field and no other Spartan scored at least eight points or finished with a plus minus above zero.
When asked after the game the best way to not let this grow into something bigger Miles answered bluntly, “We’ll have a great practice tomorrow morning at 10:30 … I think it will be an intense, aggressive practice.”
SJSU will have a quick turnaround with Fresno State (6-9, MW 2-2) coming to town on Tuesday.
“Well we’d always said to our guys from the beginning of the year, ‘Good team’s don’t lose two in a row’ and that’s disappointing, right? We just lost two in a row and so that’s a great lead into the next game. Let’s find out.”