By Aaron Johnson (@voz_aaron1) – Spear Reporter | photo by Andrew Hartley
San Jose State (8-13, 1-7 MW) suffered a 21-point loss to No. 17 Utah State (19-2, 7-2 MW), the largest margin of defeat on the season.
The biggest factor in the 82-61 loss was Aggies junior forward Great Osobor who scored 31 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
The Spartans have been exploited this season in the paint as they lack the physical inside presence to defend the top big men in the Mountain West.
Osobor was able to get to the free throw line 10 times and shot 13-19 during his time there.
Utah State continued to feed it to Osobor throughout the game and it took until 2:52 left in the second half before someone besides Osobor took a free throw for the Aggies.
“I thought we had a good start to the game,” head coach Tim Miles said. “We had a hiccup at the end of the first half that let them get a seven-point lead and then they wore us out, we just couldn’t get over the hump late in the game.”
Junior guard Myron Amey, Jr. was the top scorer with 14 points and collected seven rebounds, tied for a team high.
SJSU has now dropped four-straight games and as SJSU continues through this rough patch, Miles may start to give more minutes to the younger players more chances to develop.
Freshman forward Christian Wise played a season high 15 minutes and snagged seven rebounds, tying him for most on the team. Wise provided some much-needed rebounding help for SJSU and also played very well setting up pick and roll plays.
The Spartans have one of the youngest teams in the Mountain West featuring seven freshmen on the roster and they have shown some growing pains as the bench play has been sub-par this season.
SJSU will continue their road trip and hope to snap its losing streak against Nevada (16-5, 3-4 MW) at 8 p.m. on Thursday.