By Andrew Hartley(@andrewhart1ey) – Spear Reporter
Freshman guard Jyah LoVett briefly rests on the court while play is stopped on the court. l Photo by Andrew Hartley – The Spear
All four guards that took the court for SJSU Saturday afternoon were underclassmen. Their youth showed in the performance against Nevada.
29 turnovers. The most in any game under head coach April Phillips two-year reign.
The Spartans (6-10, 1-3 MW) tightened the game in the second half but never managed to pull ahead. The self-inflicted errors ultimately resulted in a 64-57 loss to the Wolfpack(8-9, 2-2 MW).
“We’re a young team, we’re growing, we’re figuring out how to be successful and calm in those moments when the game comes down to a stretch,” Phillips said.
Freshman point guard Jyah LoVett certainly faced the ups and downs of collegiate basketball. LoVett accounted for nine of the team’s 29 turnovers and shot 6-for-16 from the field. This comes the same week she was awarded the Mountain West Freshman of the Week. And just scored 26 points against arguably the best team in the conference earlier this week. Unfortunately, everyone has a bad game.
SJSU now leads the Mountain West in turnovers per game with 19.88. The only guard who didn’t turn the ball over was Sabrina Ma. This was also the first game this year where Ma was not in the starting lineup.
Outside of the turnovers, the Spartans were in the game.
They outrebounded Nevada, fouled less and even had more attempts from the free-throw line.
Amhyia Moreland, who also came off the bench Saturday, was a large reason for this. Moreland led the team scoring 17 points, shooting 6-for-7 from the field and hauling in eight rebounds. Accounting for almost half of the team’s 40 points in the paint.
“We won both quarters in the second half but obviously not enough down the stretch,” Phillips said.
It’s encouraging though that a team who turned the ball over with this frequency managed to stay in the game. They’re 1-6 in games with 20-plus turnovers. As coach Phillips said, it’s about finding that calmness during the critical moments of games.
Their next opportunity to get a home-conference win will be Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. against Boise State. The Broncos are the third-worst team at forcing turnovers in the conference.