By C.J. Peterson — Staff Writer
Midway through the second half, San Jose State’s sophomore guard Noah Baumann rose up behind the three-point line with his defender on his hip and attempted to draw the foul to get himself to the free-throw line.
Taking the contact, Baumann fell to the floor but heard no whistle from the referee standing five feet behind him. After watching him score 20 points in the first half, the visiting Wyoming Cowboys had adjusted to the Spartans’ sharp shooter.
Taking away the Baumann barrage in the back half of the game, Wyoming (7-23, 3-14 MW) took advantage of an inefficient Spartans team and handed a 81-71 loss to San Jose State (4-25, 1-16 MW) at the Event Center on Wednesday night.
“Noah’s always had the green light,” head coach Jean Prioleau said. “What are other teams going to do? They’re going to stay close to him and say ‘alright, let’s see if the rest of the guys can beat us.’”
Playing on the Event Center floor for the final time of the 2018-19 regular season, the Spartans began senior night by digging themselves a 17-3 hole seven minutes into the first half.
Plagued by a slew of turnovers and poor shooting in that stretch, San Jose State looked to be on the verge of letting the game get blown wide open before it really got a chance to start.
One of the turnovers came from Baumann, who had a pass picked off on the top of the key.
“He tried to come down court and it got deflected,” Prioleau said. “I was just like ‘keep it in your hands and shoot it. That might get you going.’”
With Prioleau’s blessing, Baumann took it upon himself to let it fly from almost anywhere on the floor.
Within the next five minutes, Baumann had hit five three-pointers to reel the Spartans back into the game nearly single-handedly.
The highlight play of the stretch came in the form of a step-back triple from the right wing.
Watching his shot hit nothing but net, Baumann looked to the crowd and gave them a shrug. Even he couldn’t quite comprehend what was going on, similar to the defender he dropped in the process.
“At that time I had made a couple so literally everything felt good,” Baumann said. “I know as a shooter, those kind of shots when I’m hot, I can make them.”
Baumann finished the half with 20 points as one of his best single-half performances of the year. However, the Spartans still found themselves down 42-37 after Wyoming guard A.J. Banks striped a triple of his own to end the half.
To start the second, Baumann picked up right where he left off hitting his seventh 3 of the night. But as the sophomore guard would soon find out, the Cowboys had adjusted to his play in the locker room.
“In the first half, they were playing zone so I know the zone as a shooter to get open,” Bauman said. “In the second half, they were playing more man and they were just denying me [the ball].”
Wyoming’s strategy was to let the other SJSU players beat it rather than the red-hot Desert Vista product in Baumann.
The Cowboys’ plan would work to perfection as the Spartans failed to get any other player in double figures scoring the ball besides junior center Michael Steadman, who finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
In addition, Wyoming guards Jake Hendricks and Justin James poured in 26 of their 45 combined points in the second half.
“He’s a difficult guard for us,” Prioleau said regarding James’ play. “Especially when you have a guy like Jake Hendricks out there as well … It’s a kind of pick your poison thing.”
While James did most of his damage through free throws with 11 points at the line, Hendricks killed the Spartans with six-made three-pointers.
With Baumann neutralized, SJSU was forced to look elsewhere for its scoring punch but to no avail.
“We weren’t able to finish,” Prioleau said. “We couldn’t buy a three in the second half…. We got shots up but we weren’t able to make the shot.”
With the rest of the team unable to carry the offensive load for the remainder of the second half, the Spartans would wind up falling to Wyoming 81-71 for their 11th home loss of the regular season.
Baumann recorded a game-high 27 points, while dishing out 5 rebounds.
“I wish we would have pulled out a W,” he said. “Wyoming is a tough team and they played winning basketball at the very end and we didn’t respond to it. We’ve got to get better.”
With one regular-season game remaining until the Mountain West Basketball Championship on Wednesday, the Spartans have one more chance at Fresno State to shore up their play before their slate is wiped clean for the tournament.
“It’s their senior night, so it’s going to be a really loud atmosphere,” Prioleau said. “It’ll be a good test for us.”
Follow C.J. on Twitter @CJ_Peterson1