By Nathan Canilao (@nathancanilao)- Spear Beat Reporter
After an impressive route of Air Force at home, SJSU men’s basketball (13-9, 4-5 MW) were blown out in Saturday’s matchup against San Diego State (17-4, 8-1 MW) 72-51 on the road at Viejas Arena.
Sophomore forward Robert Vaihola led the Spartans with 12 points on 6-7 shooting from the field.
“Yeah, we, you know, we just couldn’t get anything going. And we had some foul trouble early … And that hurt us,” said SJSU head coach Tim Miles.
The game was competitive through the first 10 minutes of the first half. An Omari Moore layup with 10:32 left in the first half cut the Aztec lead to just three.
From that point on, San Diego State would take control of the game with a 17-1 run to end the first half. At halftime, the Aztecs led 33-14.
The Spartans were unable to make a big run in the second half to come within the Azects’ lead.
SJSU shot a lowly 34.7% from the field and were 4-19 from behind the arc. Despite winning the rebound battle, the Spartans turned the ball over 13 times and forced just three turnovers on the defensive end.
Junior guard Omari Moore had a cold shooting night, going 3-10 from the field while adding just three assists and committing two turnovers. Senior forward Sage Tolbert III did not record a single made field goal and finished with just two points.
“You have to learn your lessons, you have to figure out how to operate in a difficult environment like this and credit San Diego State. I mean, their defense was outstanding,” Miles said.
The Spartans drop below .500 on the season in conference play with the loss. After starting out conference play 2-0, the Spartans are now 2-5 since that point.
SJSU will face Wyoming at 7 p.m. Saturday at Provident Credit Union Event Center in San Jose.