Saturday saw the Lobos welcome in a San Jose State team that, although at the bottom of the conference standings, were playing their best basketball of the season. With the Lobos looking to keep pace with the other teams at the top of the conference, a loss to the Spartans could have been devastating. However, behind a strong defensive showing and several solid individual performances, the Lobos were able to come away with a comfortable 74-58 victory.

Game Recap

I’ve heard it said that basketball is a game of runs and San Jose State is one of those teams that embody that thought. With their reliance on three-pointers and their hot-and-cold shooting, they can both shoot themselves into a game, and shoot themselves out of one. In fact, we saw them do both on Saturday.

At the beginning of the game, San Jose State didn’t shoot particularly well, but when they made shots, they were threes, which let them jump out to an early 12-7 lead. The Lobos, at that point, were ice-cold, having only made one of their first eight attempts with the rest of their points coming from the charity stripe. The teams traded baskets for a little bit until the score was tied 23-23 with 6:46 to go in the half. From that point until the 16:20 mark in the second half, the Spartans shot 1-12 from the field, including 1-8 from three point range, which allowed the Lobos to build a 39-28 lead.

They chipped away at the Lobos’ lead with one of their hot streaks that ended when they hit threes on two straight possessions to make it a 47-42 game with 10:42 left in the game and a lot of nervous Lobo fans in the audience. So what do the Spartans do next? They go on an 0-8 streak from the field over an eight-minute stretch, including 0-6 from three. That gave the Lobos an 18-point lead with just over two minutes remaining in the game, putting the game well out of reach for the visitors. When all was said and done, the Lobos finished with a 74-58 win, which was a nice bounce-back after the rough week they had leading into this game.

Players of the Game

1. Tim Williams (52 points on the season): Tim was, again, a handful for a team that didn’t really have anyone in the low post who could guard him. He shot 7-8 from the field, with all of the makes coming off of either layups or dunks. The Spartans spent a lot of time trying to make sure he didn’t get the ball in the first place, which is why he only ended up with 8 shots attempts, but they couldn’t do much more than just contain him to the tune of 16 points and 9 rebounds. At this point, with the way he’s been playing, the Lobos have two legitimate contenders for conference player of the year and quite frankly, I’m not sure which of the two I would vote for.
2. Elijah Brown (48 points on the season): Elijah had another sub-par shooting night, but thanks to his ability to get to the free throw line and convert those opportunities, he still had a very effective offensive game. He ended up with 21 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals in his 34 minutes of action, which makes me wonder what he would have done if his shots had been falling.
3. Dane Kuiper (2 points on the season): Dane really seems to like playing against SJSU, as he also showed up in this section for his game out there. Between the two games, Dane has 17 of his 24 points, 7 of his 15 rebounds, 4 of his 6 blocks, and 6 of his 11 assists on the season. More importantly, he’s looked as confident as ever in those performances. In this game, he hit a couple of timely corner threes, rebounded well, and played good defense in his 15 minutes of action. With his length and quickness, he seems to be a natural choice to replace Devon at the top of the 1-3-1 zone, so seeing him perform well out there in that role was nice to see.

Scattered Thoughts

• It was great to see the level of support that the fans showed Cullen, both at the Pit and online leading up to the game. Watching him in the game, it’s clear that his confidence level isn’t where it needs to be for him to perform the way that he’s capable of. It might take some time for that to happen, as it’s hard to just bounce right back from what he’s been through, but hopefully the events in the past few days will help start that process. I wouldn’t be surprised if sometime in the next few games he makes a couple of shots and we get a glimpse of the Cullen of old, both in terms of play and personality.
• As I mentioned in the preview, the defense had been having a rough go at it the past few games, with possibly the worst four-game stretch of the season on that end of the court. However, just like last time the team had a stretch like that, they bounced back to have a nice outing. Now, part of that is the difference in the level of competition, so it will remain to be seen if the improvement will carry forward. We’ll get a much better idea after the Boise State game, as they’re a much better team on the offensive end than SJSU.
• Based on all of the results of this past weekend, the Lobos are back in sole possession of second place in the conference. However, sort of amazingly, they’re as close to 8^th place as they are to 1^st place, being both 3.5 games behind SDSU and 3.5 games ahead of Wyoming. The Lobos have games remaining with most of the teams they’re jockeying for position with at the top of the standings, which means a couple of things. First, they do have a tough remaining schedule and every game from here on out is going to be a big one, as there is nothing guaranteed to them at this point. Second, and more positively, they have a lot of opportunities to solidify themselves as one of the top two teams in the conference. That could lead to a fun week in March out in Las Vegas.

Up Next

The Lobos will face Boise State in a game that will once again determine who has sole possession of second place when they walk out of the gym. A win would put the Lobos in a really good positon for the conference tournament while a loss could put them in danger of having to be in a play-in game in Las Vegas. As I said before, they’re all big games from here on out.