By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
A year after finishing 333rd in the NET and last in the Mountain West, SJSU (16-10, 7-6 MW) clinched its first winning season since 2011 and the third of the 21st century after beating UNLV 75-66.
“I’m just so happy for these guys who were here last year after such a difficult season,” said SJSU head coach Tim Miles.
The Spartans flew its way into history books after wings Trey Anderson and Tibet Gorener combined for 31 points
“We leaned on Omari [Moore] hard and heavy for a long time many nights out so it was great to see everybody doing it,” said Miles.
Anderson tied a season-high with 19 points, 14 of which came in the first half on 5-for-7 shooting from three and Gorener had 11 points on 3-for-8 shooting from three. As a team the Spartans shot 12-for-30 (40%) from three, one of its strongest performances from deep this season.
“Both of those wings struggled at Fresno State last time we were in a road game and tonight they were both excellent,” said Miles. The duo combined for five points and shot 2-for-12 in SJSU’s 70-62 loss at Fresno State last Tuesday.
History was made for both SJSU and Omari Moore who became the ninth all-time scorer in SJSU after passing Johnnie Skinner and Terry Cannon with a 14-point performance — all of which came in the second half after he was shutout in the first half on 0-for-8 shooting.
“He deserves every accolade he could possibly get,” said Miles.
Which shows just how important it was for SJSU to get 14 first half points from Anderson to help keep SJSU afloat early on.
While Moore, Anderson and Gorener were the only Spartans in double figures, Tuesday night’s victory to clinch a season sweep over UNLV (16-10, 5-9 MW) was an all around effort.
Ibrahima Diallo had eight points, eight rebounds and four offensive rebounds, and Robert Vaihola had nine points and four rebounds.
SJSU led for 74% of the game and its largest lead came with 4:50 left after a three-pointer from Moore made the game 67-53.
The Spartans were excellent defensively, holding UNLV to 36.5% day from the field and 5-for-18 (27.8%) mark from beyond the arc.
Tuesday night’s win ties the Brandon Clarke led 2016-17 Spartans for the most conference wins in a single season since 1995-96 when SJSU won the Big West.
Next up: SJSU welcomes New Mexico this Friday at 7 p.m.
The Lobos throttled the Spartans by 20-points when the teams met in The Pit last month.
“New Mexico is an exceptional team and they’ve struggled a little bit lately, but at the same time they’ve got as good of talent as anybody in this conference and so as we go forward we are going to have to be ready for that because they beat us pretty good at their place,” said Miles.
