By Alex Valle— Content Editor
San Jose State women’s basketball hosts Eastern Washington for their home opener Friday night.
The Spartans (0-1) dropped its first game of the season to preseason Big West favorites, UC Irvine, by a score of 79-77.
This was an encouraging performance for the lady Spartans as they were able to keep up with a program that has had winning seasons in its previous two years.
The Eagles (0-1) are coming to San Jose after they were obliterated by Stanford by a score of 92-27.
Although the Eagles are coming off of a lack luster 13-20 record from last year, the one loss to the Cardinal doesn’t reflect the true identity of this team.
San Jose State should be able to pull away with a win, but should not underestimate this Eastern Washington team.
Freshman Kennedy Dickie is the Eagles player to look out for in Friday’s contest solely because of her usage.
Dickie played a team high 36 minutes and seems to have the green light all game.
She led Eastern Washington with seven points and attempted 16 field goals with eight of those attempts coming from deep.
This trend will most likely keep up in this matchup as the Eagles are looking for an offensive leader as head coach Wendy Schuller started four underclassmen in the season’s first game.
On the Spartans side there were three girls that stood out from the rest in the season opener.
The trio of Tyra Whitehead, Ayzhiana Basallo and Megan Anderson will be vital to this teams success.
Junior forward Whitehead is a walking double-double and is the key big to run a pick-and-roll with.
Sophomore guard Basallo and junior forward Anderson are deep threats that will space out the opposing defense allowing for Whitehead to continue to dominate in the paint.
This trio is dynamic on offense and will bring to the Spartans a force down low with efficient outside shooters.
If SJSU is able to pull away early in this game, it will give opportunities to players deeper in the depth chart to earn more minutes to show what they can bring to this Spartan team.
San Jose State should win this game behind another balanced effort from the Spartan trio.
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