Monday, November 24, 2008

San Jose State falls by one

We remain mystified why playing on the road has such a dramatic impact in lowering a team's winning percentage but such is fact whether it be in professional or collegiate sports.

That played out Monday night as San Jose State fell 47-46 to home team Presbyterian.

The Spartans led 44-42 after a Blue Hose basket by Al'Lonzo Coleman. DeShawn Wright upped the lead back to four with a putback after a blocked shot.

Presbyterian then missed a free throw and Wright rebounded the miss with 50 seconds remaining.

The Spartans misfired on the next shot and Coleman followed with a short lean-in shot and made the subsequent free throw as he was also fouled.

That reduced the San Jose lead to one.

Tim Pierce was fouled with 14 seconds left but he missed the free throw. The Blue Hose rebounded the miss, came down the court and Coleman again nailed a short shot off his own miss, putting Presbyterian ahead by one with three ticks left on the clock.

After a Spartan timeout, Mac Peterson missed a final try at the buzzer.

Free throws, or rather the missed kind, allowed the Blue Hose to hang around and eventually snatch the win. San Jose State was able to make just nine of 18 charity tosses.

For the game, SJSU shot 36% to Presbyterian's 32%. Pierce led with 14 points and C.J. Webster added 11. Chris Oakes nabbed 10 boards.

San Jose State led 24-19 after the initial 20 minutes. The Spartans shot well (50%) but countered that with 10 turnovers. On the flip side, Presbyterian shot 27%. Rebounds were even with SJSU grabbing 16 to 16 for the Blue Hose.

Presbyterian scored the first two points of the game but San Jose State went on an 11-0 run to take a double digit lead. Crisp Spartan play and on-target shooting in the early minutes made the difference.

San Jose State

Pierce 5-14 3-7 14
Webster 4-7 3-4 11
Oakes 3-10 0-0 6
Graham 3-4 0-1 6
Wright 3-11 1-1 7
Amberry 0-1 0-0 0
Olivier 0-0 0-0 0
Thomas 0-0 0-0 0
Owens 0-2 2-5 2
Peterson 0-1 0-0 0

Totals 18-50 9-18

Presbyterian

Bostic 2-10 3-4 7
Sligh 1-3 0-0 3
Coleman 9-18 4-6 22
Miller 3-9 0-1 9
Johnson 1-7 0-0 2
Davis 0-0 0-0 0
King 1-3 0-1 2
Brown 0-0 0-0 0
Gatkuoth 0-0 0-0 0
Gibbs 1-2 0-0 2
Holmes 0-4 0-0 0

Totals 18-56 7-12

Halftime score – San Jose State 24, Presbyterian 19

Three-point field goals – San Jose State 1-6 (Pierce 1-4, Wright 0-1, Owens 0-1), Presbyterian 4-24 (Miller 3-8, Johnson 0-5, Bostic 0-4, Coleman 0-1, Sligh 1-1, King 0-2, Holmes 0-3)

Rebounds – San Jose State 42 (Oakes 10), Presbyterian 38 (Coleman 13)

Assists – San Jose State 7 (Webster 4), Presbyterian 13 (Bostic 4)

Fouled out – Webster

Total fouls – San Jose State 16, Presbyterian 16

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

With the expectations going into this season, this is a very disappointing loss, to say the least. Time will tell if this is just a bad game or the norm for this team.

spartanhoops said...

Please do not be anonymous next time as your beliefs appear sincere. Yes, it was an eminently winnable game as the coaches and players would agree. Let's see how the team reacts.