By Keanu Haghighi (@KeanuHaghighi ):
San Jose State men’s basketball (3-24, 0-16 MW) will have its last chance to win a conference game at home against the Utah State Aggies (14-15, 7-9 MW) tonight.
The two teams met in the conference opener on December 27 in Logan, where Utah State won by a score of 86-72.
Turnovers were the Spartans’ Achilles heel in that game as SJSU turned the ball over 23 times which translated into 36 points for the Aggies.
A common theme for the Spartans this year has been losing close games as result of their carelessness with the basketball. The team ranks dead last in the Mountain West in turnover margin (-5.9) and turnover/assist ratio (0.8).
However, the Aggies are a small team as they only have two players on their roster who are over 6-foot-9.
Utah State’s lack of height gives the Spartans a great opportunity to create mismatches and feed the ball to their 6-foot-9 leading scorer, Ryan Welage. In the last meeting against the Aggies, he led the Spartans in scoring with 22 points.
Welage also has an opportunity to achieve a tremendous milestone in front of his home crowd. He currently sits tied with Tim Pierce at 153 made 3-pointers and is only one made 3-point field goal away from becoming the program’s all-time leader.
Since this is the last home game of the season, Jalen James and Ryan Singer will be honored for senior night before tip-off.
James had to deal with an injury-riddled senior season as he only started in five games and made eight appearances all season. In four years, James averaged 5.9 PPG, 2.6 APG and nearly 3 RPG. He recorded the third triple-double in Mountain West history in his freshman year against Houston, posting 12 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.
Singer, who is listed as a redshirt junior, will also be recognized before the game. He will be graduating this semester and has decided to forgo his senior season. In three games this season, Singer averaged 1.3 ppg and 3.7 rpg.
Tip-off for Senior Night is tonight at 7 p.m.