By Nate Person — Staff Writer
San Jose State women’s basketball (1-3) took on CSU Bakersfield (3-2) Saturday in what turned out to be an exhilarating event.
The Spartans’ fierce competitive spirit earned them their first win of the season. The final score of the game had SJSU on top of CSUB 82-72.
The formally winless Spartans had started the season 0-3 in a series of lackluster performances noted by low levels of competitive spirit.
However, that wasn’t evident as they came out in the first quarter looking very sharp and took an early lead over the Roadrunners.
“It felt like we got our team back,” said head coach Jamie Craighead. “We hadn’t been competing very hard in the first three contests.”
The first half was marked by a very fast paced game by both teams but SJSU led 40-37 at the end of the 2nd quarter.
The strategy to catch the opposing defense in transition as much as possible was clearly paying off for both sides.
By the second half, the Spartans had the edge over the Roadrunners, who began to resort to tactics like double-teaming and unusual substitutions.
Even these tactics failed as seemingly all the Spartans were able to hit the three or draw a foul at will by the end of the game.
“We had five players scoring in double digits,” said sophomore forward Cydni Lewis. “Everybody stepped up and played their role today.”
The Spartans brought it to the Roadrunners from distance by hitting 12 of 22 3-pointers for a 54.5% shooting average as a team.
The next time the Spartans take to the court will be next Thursday when they face the University of Pacific at the Event Center.
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