By Ernie Gonzalez (@superego1012):
Three weeks ago when San Jose State and Wyoming last met, Ryan Welage dropped a career-high 37 points, but even that wasn’t enough to beat the Pokes, as SJSU fell by four in overtime.
Saturday, the two squads meet for the second and last time this season as both teams try to end their losing streaks.
The Spartans (3-21, 0-13 MW) haven’t won since their Dec. 21 non-conference game against local rival Santa Clara University while the Cowboys (16-10, 7-6 MW) haven’t won in 10 days, falling against UNLV and San Diego State.
The Spartans will need to turn to junior forward Ryan Welage again in this contest, as he has led the team in scoring in 17 of the 24 games this season with an 18.5 PPG average.
Recently however, it has been redshirt freshman Keith Fisher III taking the scoring role, as he’s dropped 17 and 23 points over the last two games, respectively.
Welage and Fisher still won’t be enough to ride with the Cowboys and the need of a third reliable scorer will need to show up this afternoon.
Two Cowboys to keep tabs on are guards Justin James and Louis Adams, who combined for 46 points and eight assists the last time the two teams met. They are greedy guards who play with hustle, so the Spartans will need an equal level of it if they want a shot.
Limiting the turnovers has been something the Spartans have worked on all year and it has finally smoothing out over the last two games with 13 and 12 respectively, their combined total they had in New Mexico (25).
Tip off is at 1 p.m. in Laramie.