SJSU wins 67-60

There wasn't necessarily a flow to the game, more a series of stops and starts, and definitely the breaking in of new whistles by the zebras but San Jose State triumphed on the road 67-60 against Eastern Washington.

The turning point? It was more a stretch of minutes in the second half. Freshman Keith Shamburger nabbed a steal and scored on a layup to put the Spartans ahead 52-50. This after the teams were La Brea Tar Pitted at 50-50 for quite some time.

Then, Adrian Oliver performed a live exemplification of Dan Patrick's famous phrase "you can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him" -- although EW definitely struggled even with the latter.

He made one of two free throws, then a deuce from the corner. Another AO corner shot -- a trey -- made it 58- 50. Eastern Washington managed a tip-in but Oliver put in two more at the charity stripe followed by a top of the key two. He closed the barrage out with a bank shot and the Eagles were plucked.

Coinciding with the scoring burst were nine straight defensive stops by SJSU, led by exemplary defensive effort by Chris Jones.

Oliver led the Spartans in scoring with 34 points, with newcomers Wil Carter and Keith Shamburger adding nine apiece. Carter topped the team in rebounding with 11.

Neither team shot well overall, with San Jose State finishing at 33% and the Eagles at a slightly better 37%. Making just 55% of free throw opportunities dramatically hindered Eastern Washington.

At the half, it was Eastern Washington up 36-33. The score was tied eight times and there were also eight lead changes in the first 20 minutes and Oliver had 14 points at the first horn. It was also quite the foul fest in the initial half with each of the Spartan bigs in foul trouble.

The SJSU starting lineup was Matt Ballard, Wil Carter, Keith Shamburger, Adrian Oliver and Justin Graham.