By Richy Zajic — Senior Content Editor
It was a game of big runs in Las Vegas between San Jose State and UNLV, but ultimately SJSU was playing catch-up and never did quite that.
Here are a few takeaways from the Spartans’ (6-13, 2-5 MW) 98-87 road loss to the Runnin’ Rebels (10-9, 5-1 MW).
Knight is the real deal
Yes, I’ve said this before. But sophomore forward Seneca Knight keeps raising the bar on his potential and he took it to another level Wednesday night with a career-high 30 points versus the Rebels. Scoring the ball has never seemed to be an issue for Knight, but efficiency has always been the question. This was not a problem for the sophomore in Vegas though. Knight knocked down 43.7 percent of his total shots on the night while also shooting 40 percent from downtown. These are encouraging numbers to see from the forward considering the volume of shots he is taking for this squad, especially as just a sophomore. Not to mention, Knight capitalized on 80 percent of his shots from the charity stripe. Knight kept the Spartans in this game when the Rebels looked as though they would run away with it.
Crashing the glass
While the final score may not seem as though this game was too lopsided, the Rebels certainly had control of the contest for a solid portion of the night. A key factor to the Rebels’ lead was rebounding. The Spartans were not keeping up on the glass, being out-rebounded 45-23 on the night. The Rebels snatched up 13 offensive rebounds in the contest, while the Spartans only mustered 14 total defensive rebounds. That is a staggering number and frankly it’s surprising that the game was as close as it was with these rebounding disparities. No Spartan had more than six boards by the end of the game, so this was obviously a glaring reason why they ended up on the losing side of this matchup.
Road composure
The story of the men’s basketball program as of recently has been turnovers, turnovers and more turnovers. But on Wednesday night, this was not much of an issue. The Spartans only coughed the ball up eight times, while forcing 16 Rebel turnovers. This is certainly a step in the right direction for this squad, and is especially impressive because it happened on the road. There were no Spartans that had more than two individual turnovers on the night, so this has to be a promising sight for head coach Jean Prioleau. The team seems as though it’s continuing to gel, and the dropping turnover total is a big deal for this squad.
NEXT UP: The Spartans’ next contest will be on Tuesday, Jan. 21 in Albuquerque, NM versus the Lobos at 8 p.m.
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