Jan. 30, 2015
San Jose, Calif. - After a tough loss on the road on Wednesday at Air Force, the San José State women's basketball team closes out the week in the friendly confines of The Event Center, where they boast a 7-1 record this year. The Spartans host the New Mexico Lobos in a Saturday afternoon match-up.
GAME 20
vs. New Mexico (9-10, 5-3 MW)
Saturday, January 31, 2:00 p.m.
The Event Center, San Jose, Calif.
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 Digitalat 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.
CUNNIGAN SAN JOSÉ STATE HOOPS SCORING RECORD-HOLDER
With 25 points versus Boise State (1/21), Ta'Rea Cunnigan (Sr., G, Winchester, Calif.) moved past Ricky Berry (1,767 points from 1986-88) to assume ownership of the school's all-time scoring record. Just a game before, at Colorado State (1/17), she passed Karen Mason (1,760 points from 1978-81) to become San José State women's basketball's all-time leading scorer. Cunnigan has 1,787 points...and counting.
Cunnigan drained a 3-pointer with 15:47 to play in the first half to pass Berry and assume the all-time scoring lead. She became the 51st woman in Division I to top her school's career scoring list (men's and women's), according to records available from NCAA member institutions. Among the 51, she is the fifth woman at a Mountain West school to lead her institution in career scoring.
CUNNIGAN NAMED MW WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Guard Ta'Rea Cunnigan earned Mountain West Women's Basketball Player of the Week honors for games played through Sunday, January 25, 2015, it was announced this morning at the conference office in Colorado Springs, Colo. It is the first MW weekly honor for Cunnigan this season and the second of her career.
The senior from Winchester, Calif., led the Spartans to an 88-78 victory over Boise State last Wednesday, the team's only game of the week. The win snapped a season-long three-game losing skid.
Cunnigan led San José State with 25 points, shooting 64.3 percent (9-of-14) from the field, including 50.0 percent (3-of-6) from beyond the arc. She was also a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line and contributed two rebounds, two assists and two steals to the winning effort.
Trailing 7-0 in the first minute, Cunnigan led a 14-2 run to put SJSU ahead, 14-9. The three-pointer that capped the run made her the all-time career scorer in San José State basketball history (1,768 points; men or women).
Then, tied at 70 with 6:23 to play, she nailed a three-pointer to give the Spartans a lead that the team would not give up. Her layup with 1:31 left in the game extended the Spartan lead to 10, 84-74.
34...IT'S A MAGIC NUMBER
Former San José State career scoring leader Ricky Berry, who amassed 1,767 points in his career, wore #34. Ta'Rea Cunnigan (Sr., G, Winchester, Calif.), who passed Berry with a 25-point outburst to take sole possession of the school's career scoring title, also wears jersey #34.
THINK PLAY 4KAY AND PINK ON SENIOR DAY
The Spartans will celebrate the careers of three seniors, Ta'Rea Cunnigan, Chereese Thomas and Rebecca Woodberry, in their last regular-season home game on Saturday, February 28. It will also be team's annual Play 4Kay, pink game to benefit the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
The Kay Yow Cancer Fund, in partnership with the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and The V Foundation, is a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization committed to being a part of finding an answer in the fight against women's cancers through raising money for scientific research, assisting the under served and unifying people for a common cause.
Coach Kay Yow, former North Carolina State University head women's basketball coach, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, and passed away on January 24, 2009, after facing her third bout with the disease. With the creation of the Fund, Coach Yow hoped to raise money to further cutting-edge research conducted by the nation's top doctors and medical experts to allow more and more cancer patients to have access to experimental drugs and clinical trials. Since the majority of these research projects are privately funded, these researchers desperately need our support in order for them to continue to make strides in finding a cure for cancer.
To date, the Fund has contributed over $3.9 million in support of women's cancer research.
CUNNIGAN AMONG ACTIVE CAREER LEADERS IN THE NCAA
Among Division I women's basketball players,Ta'Rea Cunnigan (Sr., G, Winchester, Calif.) ranks second free throws made (496) and free throws attempted (657). She is 13th in steals (237). Her 1,518 field goal attempts are 12th most among active women players and she ranked 18th in field goals (596). Her 16.6/g career scoring average is the 10th highest among current players. Finally, Cunnigan is the eighth leading scorer among active players with 1,807 career points.
SPARTANS CONTINUE TO TOP MOUNTAIN WEST IN SCORING
San José State is scoring 81.5 points per game, which leads the conference. The team is averaging nearly eight points more than its next closest rival (Boise State - 73.6 ppg). In addition to leading the Mountain West, San José State is the seventh highest scoring team in the nation.
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. The Spartans have eclipsed 100 points in a game three times this year and have come away with a victory each time.
BYRD CLIMBING THE SAN JOSÉ STATE REBOUNDING LIST
With six rebounds versus Boise State (1/21) Riana Byrd (Jr., F, Richmond, Calif.) secured third place on the program's career rebounding list. Byrd has ripped down 715 rebounds in 78 games. Byrd began the season in ninth place with 603 career rebounds and has moved up six spots to third, but she has some work to do to reach second place (Rhoda Chew - 946 rebounds from 1982-85).
At her current pace Byrd could finish her career as just the second Spartan to reach the 1,000 point/1,000 rebound plateau. She would join Elinor Banks (1,672 points/1,062 rebounds - 1978-81) as the only players in program history to reach the milestone.
THE PRESSURE IS ON...SPARTANS 9TH IN THE NCAA IN TURNOVER MARGIN
Through 19 games the Spartans have shown what their pressure defense is capable of doing. SJSU has forced its opponents to turn the ball over 422 times and in those, made 223 steals. San José State has made those opponent miscues pay off to the tune of a 400-241 advantage in points off turnovers. Nationally, the team ranks seventh in turnover margin at 6.95 and 11th in steals per game grabbing 11.7 per game. The team leads the Mountain West in both categories.
SPARTANS RANK 21st IN THE NATION IN 3-POINTERS
San José State is hitting an average of 8.1 shots from beyond the arc per game, which ranks 21st in the nation and is second in the Mountain West, but taking and hitting threes are nothing new under 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.
SCOUTING NEW MEXICO
The Lobos enter their match-up against the Spartans with a 9-10 record and are 5-3 in the Mountain West. They are averaging 60.2 ppg on the year and are being outscored by an average of 3.2 points per outing.
New Mexico is under the direction of fourth-year head coach Yvonne Sanchez. Entering the 2014-15 season Sanchez had a 39-53 record at New Mexico.
Senior guard Antiesha Brown leads the Lobos' offense averaging 13.9 points per game. Khadijah Shumpert, a junior forward, is the only other player in double figures at 10.7 points per outing. Shumpert is also the top rebounder at 6.2 per game. Bryce Owens, a junior guard, tops the squad in both assists (2.4/g) and steals (1.5/g).
This will be the fifth meeting between these programs in which the Spartans have yet to come out on the winning end. Last year New Mexico won by scores of 80-68 in Albuquerque and 76-73 in a game contested in De Anza College's gym.