By Jose Trujillo (@jAy_Ay_T ):
Coming off its first conference road win, the San Jose State women’s basketball team (6-11, 3-3 MW) will have some momentum heading into Wednesday nights matchup against the Nevada Wolf Pack (9-7, 2-3 MW).
Currently, both teams are struggling to find themselves back above the .500 mark and sit sixth (SJSU) and seventh (Nevada) in the Mountain West.
San Jose State is looking for its second straight road win, but it will not come easy as Nevada plays much better at home. The Wolf Pack own 7-2 record at the Lawler Events Center.
Alongside playing really well at home, Nevada is a strong rebounding team which is something the Spartans struggle mightily with. Nevada’s +3.4 rebounding margin ranks third in the conference.
No doubt that rebounding will be key for the Spartans, especially on the defensive end. For a comparison, Nevada has given up 172 offensive rebounds and San Jose State is at 284.
One way to affect the rebounding chances of Nevada is simple: take good shots and make them.
SJSU is one of the best scoring teams in the conference and Nevada’s defensive field goal percentage isn’t good, especially when defending the three ball.
The Wolf Pack are allowing teams to shoot 35 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three which is dead last in the Mountain West.
This will have to be an area the Spartans must take advantage of, as the they are second in both three-point makes (147) and attempts (417) in the conference.
For Nevada, Senior Forward Teige Zeller is the player to look out for. Zeller leads the team in scoring at 13.8 points a game. Her 7.8 rebounds a game also tops the team, and ranks her fourth in the conference. She is shooting an incredible 54 percent from the floor this season.
Sophomore guard Camariah King is another Wolf Pack player the Spartans will need to contain. After starting the season off cold, the redshirt has turned things around and has scored in double-digits in 10 of the last 11 games.
On the other side, the Spartans will continue to ride on their backcourt duo of Myzhanique Ladd and Taylor Turney.
In her final season, Ladd is averaging 13.4 points per game, 7.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and tops the squad in minutes with 531. The next closest player is Turney with 100 fewer.
Turney is also having herself a really nice season as she tops the team in points per game with 13.6 per game to go along with 4.4 helpers per contest. Her assists average ranks fourth in the conference.
This is a game where one team’s strengths is the others weakness. Nevada is great at rebounding, San Jose State isn’t. San Jose State can shoot the three, Nevada cannot defend it. Whichever team can exploit this often should end up with a win.
Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Lawler Events Center.
