By: Sofia Wright — Staff Writer
A 2-0 start to conference play. Overall 7-3 on the season, and 5-0 at home. The 2-0 start to Mountain West play is the program’s first since the 2015-16 season.
The San Jose State women’s basketball team is proving itself, and with its 84-67 win against San Diego State (4-6, 1-1 MW) it’s only kept the ball rolling, or better-yet, swishing.
Sophomore guard Ayzhiana Basallo continued to lead the way for the Spartans with 20 points, five assists, three boards, and two steals. It’s games like this that have made her fourth in the country in scoring, averaging 22.6 points per game.
And against SDSU, she was in good company.
Junior guard Megan Anderson had a lights-out game and shot 5 of 7 from long-distance. She finished the game with 17 points, an assist and a steal apiece.
Digging Deep
Just a few games prior to conference play, questions about the team’s depth were raised: how sustainable would the line-up be if three of their five starters were playing over 30 minutes a game?
But, with commanding back-to-back conference wins, the bench has balled out. In their win against SDSU the bench outscored the San Diego bench 19-11.
Against Utah State, the gap was even larger at 17-6.
“Bench depth can mean two players at this level,” head coach Jaime Craighead said. “Obviously we like to have more depth so that if we need to stay fresh or we push the tempo so much offensively that sometimes people get tired.”
The Spartans pushed the tempo plenty against the Aztecs, tallying up 23 points off the fast break, while also creating a lot of opportunities on defense to turn the ball over.
“Danae [Marquez], she’s a sixth starter for us,” Craighead said. “We don’t look at it as ‘she comes off the bench’ we just have six starters.”
The sixth starter racked up 10 points and had the team’s second highest plus-minus at +17.
D-fence
From the get-go, SJSU turned up it’s intensity on defense. The Spartans were evenly matched with the Aztecs in size, and had a field day on defense.
The team scored 26 points off turnovers. Six players forced turnovers, and Marquez led the way with four steals. The Spartans collectively finished the game with 10 steals and five blocks.
“The past two games we’ve come out and just been really gritty on defense,” Anderson said. “We’ve just been really working hard and getting stops is our goal.”
SJSU is in the top 30 in the country in steals, now with 112 on the season and averaging 11.2 per game.
“I don’t mean it in a cocky way but we can score offensively at-will,” junior forward Tyra Whitehead said. “What we like is defensive presence. We’ve made a point these last two games to make a statement on defense.”
Keep it Movin’
Going into the game, SJSU was ranked six nationally in assists. They’re now third in the nation.
The team has 180 assists on the season, and three players against the Aztecs dished five: Basallo, Marquez, and senior guard Fieme’a Hafoka.
Basallo is second in the country in assists, now with 60 on the season.
The Spartans look to stay hot at home, and will face La Verne for a break from conference play. Tip-off is at 1 p.m. Saturday at Provident Credit Union Event Center.
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