By Jarra Gojolo— Staff Writer
It’s been a while since SJSU has had a winning record this late in the season.
Seneca Knight scored 22 points, as the Spartans (3-2) defeated Grambling State (3-1) 83-76 on Wednesday. Five games into the season, the Spartans are already just one win away from their total from all of last season.
Keep That Same Energy
The game was played at a breakneck pace. From the opening tip, this was a hotly-contested match. Both squads came out of the gate swarming on both sides of the ball, diving for the loose ones. You know, blue-collar basketball.
The Spartans had the size advantage in the starting lineups. But when Grambling State introduced 7-foot-1 Trevon Bunch to the game, forwards Christian Anigwe and Ralph Agee were tasked with limiting the center’s damage.
Anigwe says the game plan against Bunch was simple
“Just hitting him early, seeing where he’s at on the floor at all times,” the sophomore said. “Not letting him get easy seals or easy putbacks or boxing him out. Just doing the little things on defense.”
Bunch had a couple monster dunks because, you know, 7-foot-1. But the duo held him to 3-7 shooting from the field, picking up a technical foul and fouling out of the game in the second half.
Energy remained high until the final buzzer. The Spartans maintained theirs with help from head coach Jean Prioleau, who tweaked their current routine in the face of a busy week.
“Physically having your body ready, and mentally having your body ready is so important,” Prioleau said. “Especially in a week like we’re having.”
The Spartans, who defeated Simpson University on Sunday and will play Portland State on Saturday, held lighter practices in preparation for Wednesday’s game. Shootaround was held in street clothes, consisting of light walkthroughs to conserve energy for the later game.
Press
Press, Press, Press, Press, Press. The Spartans didn’t need more press.
Grambling State deployed the full court press intermittently throughout Wednesday’s contest. The Spartans managed it well in the first half, keeping the turnover margin nearly equal (six turnovers to Grambling State’s seven). But when the Tigers re-introduced the press in the second half, the Spartans struggled to break it down the stretch.
SJSU committed 15 turnovers in the second half compared to Grambling State’s six.
“Coming into the game, we knew they were gonna press,” Seneca Knight said. “We watched film, we scouted them, so we knew it was gonna be a battle”.
Despite that knowledge, the guard says the full court press was still effective. He reiterated its effectiveness when he took a look at the turnover numbers: he led the team Wednesday with six turnovers.
Coach Prioleau says the full court pressure, and the team’s failure to handle that pressure, was why the game was tight at the end.
“We got a little quick, we started throwing the ball all over the place,” Prioleau said. “It’s hard to simulate that pressure every single day, we’ll practice it, but it’s hard to simulate.
“When teams are trying to come back and are trying to press you, they want you to speed up, they want you to go down and shoot quickly. We kinda took the bait.”
Despite the 2nd half struggles, the Spartans, including freshman guard Omari Moore, would end up defeating the press and taking control of the rest of the game.
Knight in Shining Armor
The Spartans are going as far as Seneca Knight will take them.
The sophomore guard had as complete of a game as he’s had this season, attacking the basket at will, draining two of his four attempts from beyond the arc, pushing the tempo and hustling for loose balls at both ends.
But Knight says his slashing couldn’t happen without the Tigers’ mindfulness of the other Spartans.
“Knowing [my teammates] could knock down a shot, they had to respect it,” Knight said. “So if I’m driving to the goal they couldn’t help all the way because they knew I could kick it out and find my teammates. They’d knock down the shot.”
Coach Prioleau says it was a matter of time before Knight’s contributions made its way to the stat sheet.
“If you’ve been watching the games, he’s been playing hard all along.” Prioleau said. “The only thing he hasn’t done is he hasn’t made shots…If he starts making shots, he’s off the charts good.”
Knight worked hard in the offseason to expand his game. With the departures of arguably the program’s two best players in Michael Steadman and Noah Baumann, Knight has been training to shoulder a bigger load for SJSU.
Shoulders that Prioleau says flexed their muscles late in Wednesday’s victory.
“I think today in the second half, what you saw was just a guy that said, “Hey, I’m growing up … I’m gonna take these shots and I’m gonna make these shots.”
Follow Jarra on Twitter @JarraGojolo