By Austin Turner –– Content Editor
After two near-upsets against a couple of Pac-12 teams, San Jose State (3-8) will finish up nonconference play and its tour of Bay Area neighbor schools when it takes on Saint Mary’s on Saturday night.
Saint Mary’s (8-6), a West Coast Conference powerhouse, has had a solid, if not disappointing season. The Gaels have wins against Cal and New Mexico, but have fallen in its toughest contests, including losses a ranked Mississippi State and LSU.
The Spartans have fallen in the team’s last seven meetings, but this game could be a good shot at ending the losing streak.
Following a rough start to the season, the Spartans are playing their best basketball of the season so far, and against their toughest competition. They held leads for a significant portion of the games at Stanford and Cal, and the offense has began to click after a slow start.
Sophomore Noah Baumann had a coming out party against Northern Arizona with a big 23 point performance, and against Cal he proved that he is here to stay. He was 6-9 from three, and scored 18 against the Bears. Baumann now leads the nation with a 57 percent clip from beyond the arc.
The Spartans other sharpshooter, junior Michael Steadman, is becoming the go-to scorer for the squad. With 13 points per game off of 50 percent shooting, Steadman is the player opponents have to gameplan for. He’s important on the other side of the floor as well, as his 6-foot-8 length helps him nearly average a double-double with 9 rebounds per game.
Defensively, the Spartans face one of its toughest assignments of the entire season. Junior point guard Jordan Ford of Saint Mary’s has emerged to be one of the more dominant offensive players in the nation.
He is a shoot-from-anywhere scorer, with a 51 percent shot from the field and 46 percent 3-point shot. He’s excellent at driving to the basket and getting to the free-throw line, where he is deadly at 82 percent. He’s a talented distributor, with 41 assists to 29 turnovers on the season. Ford is up along with Nevada’s Martin twins as the best offensive players the Spartans will face all season.
The Spartans will face Saint Mary’s in Moraga at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
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