March 1, 2015
San Jose, Calif. - With two games left in the 2014-15 regular season, the San José State women's basketball team travels to Boise, Idaho, to take on the Boise State Broncos, a team which they defeated 88-78 in late January.
GAME 28
at Boise (18-9, 10-6 MW)
Tuesday, March 3, 6:00 p.m. (PT)
Taco Bell Arena, Boise, Idaho
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.
SENIORS SHINE ON SENIOR DAY
Seniors Ta'Rea Cunnigan (Sr., G, Winchester, Calif.), Chereese Thomas (Sr., PG, Dublin, Calif.) and Rebecca Woodberry (Sr., F, Phoenix, Ariz.) competed for the final time on Walt McPherson court on Saturday afternoon (2/28) and went out in style with an 81-72 win over the Nevada Wolf Pack.
The victory ended a four-game skid for the Spartans, the longest of the season, assures the team of finishing no worse than ninth in the conference standings, with the possibility of as high as a seventh place finish.
Cunnigan led all scorers with 26 points, on 9-of-17 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 from the line. Woodberry had 14 points, five rebounds and a team high three steals. Thomas' five assists and eight rebounds were team-highs and she chipped in eight points.
2,000 POINTS WITHIN RANGE
Ta'Rea Cunnigan (Sr., G, Winchester, Calif.), San José State's career-scoring leader, currently sits at 1,958 points. She is 42 points from 2,000 for her career. The Spartans have a minimum of three games left in the season and if Cunnigan continues to score at her current clip, 17.1 ppg, she could reach the 2,000-point plateau in the team's first game of the 2015 Reese's Mountain West Basketball Tournament.
SINGLE-SEASON SCORING MARK IS THREATENED
The 2013-14 edition of the Spartans was the most prolific scoring team in program history. They surpassed the 2,300-point mark for the first time finishing the year with 2,308 points, an average 76.9 points per game. The 2014-15 Spartans are on pace to top last year's mark. The team has scored 2,106 points through 27 games, an average of 78.0 per game. At this pace, and with a minimum of four games left on the schedule, the team will break the program's single-season scoring record in the first game of the 2015 Reese's Mountain West Basketball Tournament.
BYRD FIVE BLOCKS FROM PROGRAM'S CAREER RECORD
With a pair of first-half blocked shots against Colorado State (2/25), Riana Byrd (Jr., F, Richmond, Calif.) moved past Rhoda Chew's (148 blocks from 1982-85) for second place on the program's career shot blocks list. Byrd has turned away 151 shots in 86 career games. Byrd is five block from equaling the San José State's all-time leader Elinor Banks' (1978-81), who rejected 156 shot attempts in her Spartans career.
PUTTING UP POINTS
The 2014-15 Spartans are one of the highest scoring teams in the nation and have led the Mountain West from the opening week of the season. The Spartans currently rank 12th (78.0 ppg) in the nation and last week dropped out of the top-10 in the nation for the first time this year. For parts of four weeks, from December 6 through December 23, San José State was the top scoring team in the nation.
HELLO 12 WINS
With the Spartans victory at Nevada (2/7), for the fourth consecutive year, the team reached the 11-win mark earlier. However, in the past three years, they ended the season with that total. With its win against Nevada (2/28) the team picked up its 12 win of the season. The last time San José State won more than 11 games in a year came in 2005-06, when they went 13-15. The team still has the opportunity to reach and/or pass the 2005-06 total in its three remaining games.
BYRD BOUNDS UP THE REBOUND 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. To date, Byrd has ripped down 786 rebounds in 86 games (9.2/g). She began the season in ninth place with 603 career boards and has moved up six spots, but she has some work to do to reach Rhoda Chew (946 rebounds from 1982-85) in second place.
At her current pace, Byrd would 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.
SPARTANS SNAP OVERTIME JINX
With its 80-77 overtime win at Nevada (2/7), the Spartans snapped a five-game losing streak in games which could not be decided in regulation. Before the game in Reno, the last time San José State had won an overtime contest was in the 2004-05 season, when it defeated SMU 63-62 in overtime.
This season the Spartans have lost three times in overtime, at Utah (100-87), at Colorado (97-89) and vs. UNLV (72-68). In the history of the program, which began in the 1974-75 season, the Spartans have played in 23 overtime contests and have an 11-12 record in those games.
PRESSURE...SPARTANS 11TH IN STEALS & 12TH IN THE NCAA IN TURNOVER MARGIN
Through 27 games the Spartans have one of the most impressive pressure defenses in the nation. SJSU has forced its opponents to turn the ball over 564 times and in those, made 310 steals. San José State has made those opponent miscues pay off to the tune of a 532-336 advantage in points off turnovers. Nationally, the team ranks 12th in turnover margin at 6.04 and 11th in steals per game nabbing 11.5 per game. The team leads the Mountain West in both categories.
FIRST OFF THE BENCH
Rachol West (So., F, Bakersfield, Calif.) has nearly doubled her per game scoring average, from 3.3 to 6.4. It took West just 12 games to surpass her 29-game point total from a year ago. She ranks second on the team in 3-pointers (35) and is the leading shooter from distance (.343). A 19-point outburst against Sacramento State (12/22) in which she drained 5-of-8 treys and grabbed five rebounds in just 19 minutes of work earned her first Mountain West Women's Basketball Player of the Week honor.
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 (526) and free throws attempted (722). She is 14th in steals (252). Her 1,653 field goal attempts are 13th most among active women players and she ranked 18th in field goals (650). Her 16.7/g career scoring average is the 21st highest among current players. Finally, Cunnigan is the third leading scorer among active players with 1,958 career points.
MY OH MYZHANIQUE
Myzhanique Ladd (Fr., G, Seattle, Wash.), the 2013-14 Ms. Basketball in the state of Washington, leads the Spartan freshman with a 4.9 ppg average and has earned starts in nine of the team's 26 games this year. On the team, MyMy ranks second in FT% (.780), fifth in FTA (59) and sixth in steals (22) and assists (30).
HARRIS PAYING DIVIDENDS
Nyre Harris (Jr., G, Stockton, Calif.) completed her year in residency at the conclusion of the fall term. In the 17 games Spartans have played since she joined the active roster, 16 of which have been starts, Harris is averaging 23.7 minutes, 3.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.8 steals and 6.1 points.
She is fourth on the team in assists (44) and is in the top-5 in points per game, steals (31) and rebounds per game. In MW games Harris ranks T6th in steals at 1.9/g.
SCOUTING BOISE STATE
The Broncos ended a three-games slide on Wednesday night with a 74-42 destruction of Air Force and enters its match-up against the Spartans with a 18-9 record, 10-6 in conference games and tied for fourth place in Mountain West.
Boise State is under the direction of 10th-year head coach Gordy Presnell. Entering the 2014-15 season Presnell had a 154-127 record with the Broncos.
The Boise State offense is led by senior guard Deanna Weaver who tops the squad in points (14.1/g) and steals (1.6/g). Camille Redmon, a senior center leads the team in rebounds (6.4/g). Sophomore guard Brooke Pahukoa is the reigning Mountain West Player of the Week. She averaged 17.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.0 blocks and assists as the Broncos went 2-0 last week.
This will be the 25th meeting between these programs in which Boise State owns a 13-11 advantage.