Dec. 3, 2014
San Jose, Calif. -Facing its sixth road game and third Pac-12 opponent in three weeks, the San José State women's basketball team travels to Boulder, Colo., to face the Colorado Buffaloes in a Friday matinée.
GAME 8
at Colorado (5-1)
Friday, December 5, 11:00 a.m. (MT)
Coors Events Center, Boulder, Colo.
Streaming video is available on the Spartan Digital Network at www.sjsuspartans.com/video
Live stats available at www.sjsuspartans.com
LIVE STATS
Fans can view live stats of all San José State women's basketball games, home and away, by accessing the "Gametracker" feature at www.sjsuspartans.com. Click on the link on the women's basketball schedule page to follow the action.
VIDEO STREAMING
Spartan Digital is your all-access passport to Spartan Athletics. For live and recorded video/audio of San José State women's basketball home, Mountain West (road and home) and select road contests, Spartan Digital is your home. Go to Spartan Digital at top of the Spartans Athletics home page or go to www.sjsuspartans.com/video.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Keep up with all 16 of San José State's team through social media sites Twitter and Facebook. For Twitter go to @sjsuathletics and on Facebook become friends with Sammy Spartan.
The women's basketball Twitter handle is @sjswbb and Facebook page is /SanJoseStateWBB.
RADIO COVERAGE
Fans across the nation can now listen to every Spartans' women's home game via Stretch Internet Radio. KSJS-FM (90.5 FM, San Jose) also originates home broadcasts and select road contests.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TICKETS
Tickets for San José State women's basketball home games are free for all SJSU students with a valid student ID. Adult tickets are $5.00 and $3.00 for youth (12 and under).
Groups of 20 or more can buy discounted tickets at $3.00 per person by 5:00 p.m. the business day before the game via the Spartan Ticket Office at (408) 924-SJTX (7589) or (877) SJSUTIX (757-8849).
The Event Center Box Office opens two hours prior to tip-off for any weekend, holiday game or doubleheader and is open regular business hours (10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) for weekday games or weekday doubleheaders.
PARKING
Parking for all San José State women's basketball games is in the University's Seventh Street Parking Garage. The Seventh Street Garage, located on the Northwest corner of San Salvador Street and Seventh Street, can be accessed through Seventh Street. Parking is $5.00.
WILL THE THIRD TIME BE A CHARM?
San José State is heading into its eighth game of the season and its third Pac-12 opponent, in Colorado. The Spartans are 0-2 so far, but pushed Utah to overtime before falling 100-87 (11/14) and last week they played #14 California (11/28) in the semifinal of the Cal Classic and lost 110-87.
This is the first time since the 1986-87 season that the Spartans will play three "Pac" schools, whether it be the Pac-8, Pac-10 or Pac-12, in a single season. Six times they have played two Pac opponents in a season, most recently in 2009-10 when they defeated Cal 68-66 and then fell to Colorado 86-50 in the only other meeting between these programs.
Prior to 1886-87, the Spartans were in the NorPac Conference with five eventual Pac schools; Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State and California.
YOU WANT OFFENSE...WE GOT OFFENSE
The Spartans are scoring at a 93.3 points per game clip so far this season, which is the second highest scoring average in the nation and leads the Mountain West. San José State is in rarefied air among the likes of Notre Dame (95.1 ppg), UConn (91.5 ppg), Baylor (90.0 ppg) and Indiana (89.5 ppg) in scoring prowess. Against Columbia (11/16) the team set a program and conference record for points in a game, when they dropped 119 on the Lions, which is the fourth highest single-game point total in the NCAA this year.
CAN YOU HANDLE PRESSURE
It's only seven games, but the Spartans shown an inkling of what their pressure defense is capable of this year. SJSU has forced its opponents to turn the ball over 186 times and in those, made 91 steals. San José State made those opponent miscues pay off to the tune of a 201-80 advantage in points off turnovers. Nationally, the team ranks second in turnover margin at +13.3 and 24th in steals per game grabbing 12.6 per game.
SHARING IS CARING
At 16.7 assists per game the Spartans are the second ranked team in the Mountain West Conference. Aniya Baker (So, PG, Perris, Calif.) leads the team with 4.7 assists per game which is good for second among MW performers. Chereese Thomas (Gr., PG, Dublin, Calif.) is also in the top-10 in the league at 3.0 assists per outing.
THREES ARE THE NAME OF THE GAME
San José State is hitting an average of 8.9 3-point field goals per game, which ranks 18th in the nation, but taking and hitting threes are nothing new under second-year head coach Jamie Craighead.
With 245 made 3-pointers and 793 attempts, the 2013-14 Spartans shattered the program's previous marks in each category. The previous record of 146 3-pointers in the 27 games (1999-00) was equaled in just 20 games (at UNLV 1/29) last season. In addition, they passed the previous record for attempts in a season (493 in 29 games in 2000-01) in that same game.
Both marks set Mountain West Conference records as well. Fresno State held the single-season and conference season records.
CUNNIGAN NEARS SAN JOSÉ STATE SCORING RECORDS
Ta'Rea Cunnigan (Sr., G, Winchester, Calif.) ranks fourth on the program's career scoring list with 1,611 points. She enters the game against Colorado 149 points behind all-time women's scoring champion Karen Mason and 156 behind Ricky Berry for the school's all-time record.
She is closing in on Elinor Banks (1,672 points) in third place on the program's career scoring list and then Cricket Williams (1,676 points) who occupies second place before a final assault on the all-time records.
EVERYBODY INTO THE POOL!
In 2014-15, San José State is getting production up and down its lineup. The bench has scored 270 of the team's 653 points; 41% of the total production. In four of its seven games, all 11 have been in the scoring column and in two of the other three 10 players have scored.
In the last four games all 11 have logged double digit minutes, and in those games the Spartans are 3-1. The lone loss coming at #14 California.
CUNNIGAN ABOUT TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP UP IN FOUR MORE CAREER CATEGORIES
In addition to the scoring record, Ta'Rea Cunnigan (Sr., G, Winchester, Calif.) is poised to move up a spot on four more career lists. She is one 3-point attempt from Atari Parker for sixth place on that career list and five 3-pointers from Cricket Williams for fifth place on the 3-pointer list. With five steals, she will move into a tie for fourth place with Kari Steele on the all-time steals list.
Finally, Cunnigan is eight free throws from tying Williams as the all-time leader in free throws made.
SCOUTING COLORADO
The Buffaloes are a member of the Pac-12 Conference, and come into their match up with San José State with a 5-1 record. In its last game, Colorado was pushed to double overtime by the Colorado State Rams in an 87-81 victory in its own Omni Hotels Classic.
CU is under the direction of fifth-year head coach Linda Lappe. She brought a 83-52 record with the program, her alma mater, into the season.
The Buffaloes have four players averaging double figures in the scoring column. They are led by a pair of forwards, junior Jen Reese (16.2 ppg., 9.2 reb.) and Jamee Swan (13.5 ppg., 7.3 reb.), a senior. Lexy Kresl, a senior guard, is the team's assist leader at 6.2 per game. Reese's 9.2 boards also leads the team.
This will be the second meeting between these programs. Like this game, the previous match-up was in Boulder and saw Colorado breeze to an 86-50 win.