By Christian Vieyra (@thecvieyra) – Executive Editor | San Jose State sophomore guard Latrell Davis goes up for a contested layup in a win over Wyoming Saturday at Provident Credit Union Event Center. (Photo by Denim Bragg – The Spear)
San Jose State men’s basketball (10-11, 3-6 MW) led for 35 minutes in a 67-58 win against Wyoming (10-10, 3-6 MW) Saturday afternoon at the Provident Credit Union Event Center in San Jose.
SJSU was tasked with guarding the Mountain West Conference’s second-leading scorer in Wyoming’s Obi Agbim and held him to a season low seven points. Agbim came into the game averaging 18.8 points per game this season and had not scored single digits this season until Saturday.
Spartans guard Donavan Yap Jr. guarded Agbim for a majority of the game.
“Yap did a good job on him, then our ball screen defense I thought was good, we were up just making sure he didn’t get a lot of clean looks,” head coach Tim Miles said. “The only way we were going to win today is if we had a good sound defensive effort and I thought we did.”
Sophomore guard Latrell Davis said Yap’s defense on Agbin forced Wyoming into uncomfortable situations.
“We made players on their team do what they didn’t want to do,” Davis said.
SJSU junior guard Will McClendon said Yap’s defensive energy got the offense going.
Davis led the Spartans with a career-high 22 points.
“(Davis) is a wrecking ball, he goes in there and he means business and that’s what we needed,” Miles said. “You have to play with force against the way they handle their ball screens, they drop their bigs right under the rim and so if you go in there and kind of take a floater or a short shot it’s a little bit discombobulated.”
McClendon finished with his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
“I think our emphasis coming in and for the rest of the year is being able to rebound so I wanted to implement that,” McClendon said.
“A double-double for him was really important. We needed those rebounds to clean up their misses and I thought we did a good job on rebounding for the most part,” Miles said.
SJSU forward Sadaidriene Hall was the team’s second-leading scorer with 13 points.
The Spartans have won three out of their last four games.
“We are all new together so us going through these games are trials and tribulations so I think that has us growing as a group and we’ll be able to hopefully get it done later in conference play,” McClendon said.
SJSU junior forward Sadraque NgaNga did not suit up against Wyoming and is unavailable according to Miles. Miles does not see that changing for SJSU’s next game at San Diego State.
The Spartans will face off against the Aztecs at 7:30 Tuesday at Viejas Arena in San Diego.
