By Madyson Montoya (@MadysonMontoya):
With not a single win in conference this season, San Jose State men’s basketball has faced every team in the Mountain West except Fresno State.
Wednesday night the Spartans (3-20, 0-12 MW) are set for a Valentine’s Day date with the conference’s third-best Bulldogs (17-8, 7-5 MW).
SJSU is in need of a change and has a golden opportunity to do it against its central-California rival. Who knows, maybe a win against SJSU’s biggest competitor can change the momentum for the rest of the season.
The two teams met almost a year ago on Feb. 15 of the 2017 season, a game where the Bulldogs won by 18. The Spartans gave up the ball 20 times which allowed Fresno State to top the Spartans for the first time in four games. It can be an advantage for the Bulldogs as turnovers are SJSU’s biggest weakness this season as well.
Fresno State has had a strong defense all season with 173 steals and has forced 31 turnovers over its past two games. The Spartans are going to have to be on their A-game if they want to keep up tonight by reducing the amount of turnovers and keeping the offense alive.
SJSU has been developing their offense behind freshmen Keith Fisher III and Noah Baumann, as the both of them had career-high scoring last game against Colorado State helping junior forward Ryan Welage with the scoring load.
Fresno State is on a two–game winning streak and coming into the Event Center trying to make it three. As long as the amount of turnovers are minimized, this game could be love at first sight for the Spartans.
The ball goes up at 7 p.m.
