Jan. 11, 2014
It was the Williams Show at The Event Center when San José State University hosted the University of New Mexico in a Mountain West men's basketball game as the Lobos prevailed 69-65 Saturday night.
Jaleel Williams of the Spartans scored a career-high 24 points making 9 of his first 13 shots from the field including six 3-pointers. Williams also had eight rebounds in the loss.
Kendall Williams, the 2013 Mountain West Player of the Year, led the Lobos with 19 points including 10 of New Mexico's last 11 points in the Lobo's win over San José State. The 6-foot-4 senior guard put New Mexico ahead to stay, 65-63, with a basket in the lane with 58.7 remaining.
San José State (6-10, 0-4 Mountain West) had two possessions in the final 40 seconds to tie the game, but Jaleel Williams was unable to make either of his field goal tries on out-of-bounds plays.
"I tried to make a big shot for my team," said Williams about his last two shots, the second of which was a 3-point try with the Spartans trailing 66-63 with 20 seconds to go.
"I'm proud of our guys. We battled. We out-rebounded them. We played extremely hard. I tell my guys, there never is a perfect game. You're going to have ups and downs. We were in the game down the stretch to the final possession," said San José State head coach Dave Wojcik. Led by 6-foot-3 guard Isaac Thornton with a season-best and game-high 11 rebounds, the Spartans out-rebounded the taller Lobos, 42-37.
"I wanted a different action on the first possession. I didn't like that possession, but we did get a good shot. I can't complain about that. I have to look at it again to see what we could have done better," the Spartans' coach said about Williams' two misses at the end of the game. "They did a good job of locking on to us, too."
"We have to learn that when they are pressing out on to us, we have to get to the free throw line."
The Lobos (12-3, 3-0 Mountain West) struggled from the free throw line shooting a season-low 55.6 percent (15-of-27), but made 6-of-8 in the last two minutes for their fifth win in a row. San José State went to the line just nine times.
There were 17 lead changes and the game was tied eight times including 63-63 after San José State's Rashad Muhammad hit a 3-pointer with 1:30 remaining. Muhammad finished with 16 points.
"Tonight, we could have executed better. It's tough not getting over the hump, but we'll get over it," said Thornton about the two most recent losses at home to Colorado State by two and Saturday night to the Lobos.
New Mexico's Deshawn Delaney with 15 and Cameron Bairstow with 12 were the game's other double-figure scorers.
San José State plays its next games on the road, at Air Force next Wednesday, January 15 at 7 p.m. MST, and at Wyoming next Saturday, January 18, at 2 p.m. MST.
New Mexico vs San José State
01/11/14 7:05 p.m. at San José, Calif. (The Event Center)
NEW MEXICO 69, SAN JOSÉ STATE 65
NEW MEXICO (12-3, 3-0 MW)
WILLIAMS, Kendall 4-11 8-11 19; BAIRSTOW, Cameron 6-14 3-7 15; DELANEY, Deshawn 4-6 1-2 12; KIRK, Alex 4-11 1-3 9; GREENWOOD, Hugh 2-6 0-0 6; AGET, Obij 2-2 0-0 4; THOMAS, Cleveland 0-2 2-2 2; NEAL, Cullen 1-5 0-2 2; BANYARD, Nick 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 23-59 15-27 69.
SAN JOSÉ STATE (6-10, 0-4 MW)
Williams, Jaleel 9-15 0-0 24; Muhammad, Rashad 4-14 5-6 16; James, Jalen 4-8 0-0 9; Cunningham, Chris 4-9 0-0 8; Thornton, Isaac 2-3 1-1 5; Wilson, Devante 1-12 0-2 3; Pollard, Matt 0-0 0-0 0; Alexander, Dylan 0-0 0-0 0; Brown, D.J. 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-62 6-9 65.
New Mexico.................... 28 41 - 69
San José State................ 25 40 - 65
3-point goals--New Mexico 8-20 (DELANEY, Deshawn 3-4; WILLIAMS, Kendall 3-6; GREENWOOD, Hugh 2-6; NEAL, Cullen 0-2; KIRK, Alex 0-2), San José State 11-32 (Williams, Jaleel 6-10; Muhammad, Rashad 3-8; Wilson, Devante 1-9; James, Jalen 1-2; Brown, D.J. 0-1; Cunningham, Chris 0-2). Fouled out--New Mexico-None, San José State-None. Rebounds--New Mexico 37 (GREENWOOD, Hugh 7; KIRK, Alex 7), San José State 42 (Thornton, Isaac 11). Assists--New Mexico 17 (WILLIAMS, Kendall 7), San José State 16 (Thornton, Isaac 4; James, Jalen 4). Total fouls--New Mexico 10, San José State 19. Technical fouls--New Mexico-None, San José State-None. A-2078.