By Sandeep Chandok (@sandeepchandok):
It was a 79-61 victory for No. 21 Saint Mary’s, which played a more offensively-sound game than the Spartans on Sunday night.
The Gaels (4-0) entered the contest shooting 44 percent from deep and continued that trend against the Spartans (1-3), connecting on 9/22 attempts, most of which were uncontested shots.
“Hats off to them,” said forward Keith Fisher. “They did a good job of recognizing the rotations and making the right reads.”
The hot three-point shooting was cemented by 51 percent shooting from the floor and 14-18 at the charity stripe.
Jock Landale dominated SJSU with 22 points and nine boards, scoring at will inside the paint and forcing Spartan bigs Oumar Barry and Ashtin Chastain into early foul trouble.
“They’re playing against a really good player,” said head coach Jean Prioleau of Landale. “I don’t know if he’s a first-team All American, but he might be close.”
Prioleau agonizingly watched Chastain miss two open threes, commit three turnovers and get scored on twice in the paint — all in the first half.
The Spartans responded in the first 20 minutes of the second half, trimming the Gaels’ 14-point lead to seven multiple times thanks to a couple bench buckets from freshman Noah Baumann and a powering and-one finish from Ryan Welage.
But every time SJSU scored, Saint Mary’s answered.
Tanner Krebs stabbed the Spartan defense, going 4/8 from distance in a 14-point effort while Emmett Naar recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists.
“It was a little bit too much helpside on that,” Fisher said of Naar’s constant penetration into the key. “That’s why we really collapsed in the paint. They kicked it out and made open shots.”
SJSU shot an efficient 45 percent in the game, but made just three of 14 triples.
Turnovers were marginalized to nine for the Spartans, something Welage said they’re getting better at.
“Hopefully we can keep improving on that and get down to where a team like Saint Mary’s is where they’re averaging like five, six turnovers a game and they take complete care of the ball,” Welage said.
Next up for SJSU is Idaho State on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Event Center.