By Nick Austin – Spear Reporter | Senior forward Djessira Diawara fighting for the rebound during SJSU’s 77-64 loss against Wyoming on Jan.29 (Photo by Alexis Corona-Aguilar – spear reporter)
The 85 points scored by San Jose State (9-14) were not enough to come out on top against Fresno State (15-8) in the 99-85 loss.
The Spartans never led in the game and trailed by nine points at the end of the first quarter. The deficit grew to 15 by halftime and reached a high of 22 points in the third quarter.
The Spartans had three players in double figures with senior guard Amiah Simmons scoring a season-high 35 points, junior center Finau Tonga scoring 20 points and sophomore guard Sydni Summers dropping 17.
The game against the Bulldogs was Simmons’s fourth consecutive game scoring over 20 points.
However, Fresno State overpowered SJSU as they had five players in double figures with junior forward Mia Jacobs scoring 36 points, shooting 9-15 from the field and 6-8 from three.
The Spartans struggled to contain the Bulldogs from 3-point range. They fired off 28 threes and managed to make 15 of them.
“We didn’t get the defensive effort we needed tonight,” Spartans head coach April Phillips said after the game. “We didn’t communicate as much as we needed to guard Fresno States screening action.”
Despite the loss, there were some positives for SJSU to take away from the game.
One of the positives was the Spartans bench outscoring the Bulldogs bench 23-8. They also scored 12 fast-break points to the Bulldogs three.
“We came back in the second-half and fought a little bit more, got the ball inside a little bit more,” Phillips said.
SJSU committed nine more fouls than Fresno State which contributed to the 32-25 free-throw advantage.
SJSU was able to make the game competitive in the fourth quarter by cutting the lead to 11 points and outscoring the Bulldogs by five points.
The Spartans will look to have a bounce-back game when they face Air Force at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Clune Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
