By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
Photo via SJSU Athletics
San Jose State men’s basketball (21-13, 10-8 MW) notched the first postseason victory in school history today in Daytona Beach, Fl. after dominating Southern Indiana 77-52 behind sophomore point guard Alvaro Cardenas’ career-high 22-point performance.
The first-round victory in the CBI also ties with the 1981 Spartans for the most wins in school history.
“Good things come to those who wait,” said SJSU’s second-year head coach Tim Miles, who’s also the reigning Mountain West Coach of the Year.
“I’m grateful for the guys and how hard they’ve worked. We’ve asked a lot from them, set a high bar for them, we’ve kept pushing them and they’ve responded really well.”
In just 22 minutes, Cardenas shot 8-for-13 and 3-for-6 from three and reigning Mountain West Player of the Year Omari Moore went for 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
Miles called Cardenas a “heart and soul guy” and later added that, “our guards really led us early and that was super important.”
The Spartans dominated in the paint outrebounding the Eagles 50-25, including 18-8 on offensive rebounds while outscoring them 36-16 in the paint and 13-3 on second chance points.
“That’s our M.O., that’s just who we are,” said Miles.
SJSU went into the half up 45-27 and the 19-point lead was kept over 20 for the entire second half. Sophomore power forward Robert Vaihola opened up the second-half by scoring six points on three-straight baskets to extend SJSU’s lead to 51-30 at the 16:47 mark.
Vaihola finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, four offensive rebounds and Sage Tolbert finished with nine points and eight rebounds.
SIU’s senior center Jacob Polakovich entered the postseason bout averaging 12.4 point and 13 rebounds, and was the second-leading rebounder nationwide, but was held to six points and seven rebounds. He also went 0-for-6 from the line with a -19.
The Screaming Eagles went 8-for-20 (40%) from the line while SJSU went 13-for-17 (76%).
SIU’s Isaiah Swope scored a team-leading 16 points, but finished with a floor-high -28.
Cardenas led SJSU with +28, Trey Anderson finished with a +23 and Moore posted a +21.
SJSU’s defense forced SIU to shoot 37% from the field 6-for-22 (27%) from three.
SJSU was tied with SIU at nine after Swope scored seven points to begin the contest, but after a media timeout, SJSU true freshman Garrett Anderson drove in for a layup, sparking a 13-2 run.
Eleven different players scored for the Spartans and they also outscored the Screaming Eagles 25-19 in bench points.
With SJSU coming in as a No. 2 seed, the victory over No. 15 seed Southern Indiana in its first year at the Division I level was expected.
SJSU will now face either Tarleton State (18-16, 9-9 ) or Radford (19-14, 12-6) who play tomorrow afternoon on Flo Hoops in the quarterfinals on Monday in Daytona Beach, Fl.