By Felix Oliveros — Staff Writer
What else is there to say after losing by 35 to the Oregon State Beavers besides, “Damn.”
The San Jose State men’s basketball team (3-4) took one to the chin Wednesday night in Orleans Arena at the Las Vegas Classic in a game that spiraled out of control and ended with The Beavers trampling the Spartans 83-48.
Both teams came out of the gates ready to play at a quick pace.
The majority of the first half was an up and down style game with both teams using variations of zone defenses. However, OSU became aggressive early and mixed in a full-court press which seemed to bother the Spartan offense.
While the lead was increasing, something seemed like it was missing.
For reasons unknown, the Spartans leading scorer, sophomore guard Seneca Knight, was benched the entire first half.
While Knight sat, Oregon State’s defense wasn’t giving the Spartans much room to breathe and the Spartans went into halftime down 45-24.
No thanks to a buzzer-beater by Oregon State guard Ethan Thompson, who had 14 of his 17 points in the first half.
OSU ended the first half shooting 61 percent with 21 points off Spartan turnovers.
The second half began with Knight joining the starters, but it was too little too late.
The Beavers had found a rhythm and were moving the ball around, creating lanes on offense as well as not letting up on defense showing full-court press again.
The lead continued to increase rapidly, and at one point the Spartans were without a field goal for 11 straight minutes and the lead grew to as large as 45 points.
The game came to a close and the box score wasn’t pretty.
The Spartans shot just 30 percent from the field, 4-26 from three-point range and had one fast breakpoint. They also had a rough time taking care of the ball resulting in 18 turnovers and just nine assists, giving up 30 points off those turnovers.
The two teams came into Wednesday night with different outcomes in their last gamers.
The Beavers were fresh off a win against Grambling State 80-58 and the Spartans came in trying not to drop two in a row after losing to Portland State 76-91.
San Jose State will look to end their two-game losing streak on Dec. 1 at UCLA at 5 p.m.
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