Nov. 20, 2015
Bozeman, Mont. --- Princeton Onwas scored a career-high 21 points, and Frank Rogers added 15 points, but it wasn't enough for the San José State men's basketball team in an 81-69 loss at Montana State on Friday night.
"You have to defend and rebound all the time, but especially on the road," said San José State head coach Dave Wojcik. "We didn't come out and be the aggressor. They got the 50-50 balls, and they beat us on the glass. That just tells me they were more aggressive than we were."
San José State was outrebounded 45-25, and went 10 for 20 at the free throw line. Montana made 23 of 28 from the stripe.
Despite those disadvantages, San José State managed to play even with Montana State in the final 20 minutes, 39-38. The different in the outcome was the hot shooting of Bobcats' point guard Marcus Colbert.
Colbert carried his team down the stretch with perfect shooting, making all six of his shots in the second half. Three of those shots came from downtown in clutch situations.
With a chance to cut the lead down to 10 with 9:23 left, Cody Schwartz missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Colbert cashed in with back-to-back threes. He finished with a game-high 24 points.
"When you give a team confidence early on, they start feeling like they can make any shot," Wojcik said. "He was just playing with confidence and we couldn't defend it tonight."
Montana State took it's largest lead of 18 points with 7:49 left to play.
Jaycee Hillsman's three-ball at the 3:17 mark cut the lead to nine, 70-61, but that turned out to be the only time SJSU was within single-digits of the lead in the final 15 minutes.
Onwas' eight field goals on 14 attempts is also a career-best. He nailed two threes in the final 1:36 while trying to keep the San José State (1-2) alive.
Brandon Clarke finished with a season-high nine points for the Spartans while Ryan Welage scored eight.
Next up, San José State takes on Toledo in the first round of the 2015 GCI Great Alaska Shootout on Wednesday, November 25.
Newspaper Box Score
San Jose State vs Montana State
11/20/15 8:00 pm at Worthington Arena - Bozeman, Montana
At Worthington Arena - Bozeman, Montana
MONTANA STATE 81, SAN JOSE STATE 69
SAN JOSE STATE (1-2)
Onwas, Princeton 8-14 3-7 21; Rogers, Frank 6-9 3-4 15; Clarke, Brandon 4-6
1-2 9; Welage, Ryan 3-10 1-4 8; James, Jalen 2-6 2-2 6; Hillsman, Jaycee 2-3
0-0 6; Williams, Jr., Gary 2-7 0-0 4; Schwartz, Cody 0-2 0-1 0; Bahner, Leon
0-0 0-0 0; Thornton, Isaac 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-57 10-20 69.
MONTANA STATE (2-2)
COLBERT, Marcus 8-13 8-10 27; HALL, Tyler 5-7 4-4 16; ROBISON, Danny 3-7 7-8
13; GREEN, Zach 3-12 2-2 9; EVERETT, Quinton 3-7 0-1 6; GOBELOGLU, Sarp 2-6
0-0 6; MATLOCK, Nahjee 1-1 0-1 2; KANSEYO, Tyson 0-1 2-2 2; BLAKE, Shy 0-0
0-0 0; NEUMANN, Sam 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-54 23-28 81.
San Jose State................ 31 38 - 69
Montana State................. 42 39 - 81
3-point goals--San Jose State 5-19 (Hillsman, Jaycee 2-3; Onwas, Princeton
2-3; Welage, Ryan 1-5; James, Jalen 0-2; Williams, Jr., Gary 0-3; SCHWARTZ,
Cody 0-2; Rogers, Frank 0-1), Montana State 8-19 (COLBERT, Marcus 3-4;
GOBELOGLU, Sarp 2-5; HALL, Tyler 2-3; GREEN, Zach 1-4; EVERETT, Quinton 0-1;
ROBISON, Danny 0-2). Fouled out--San Jose State-None, Montana State-ROBISON,
Danny. Rebounds--San Jose State 25 (Welage, Ryan 7), Montana State 45
(ROBISON, Danny 9). Assists--San Jose State 11 (Rogers, Frank 3; ONWAS,
Princeton 3), Montana State 8 (COLBERT, Marcus 6). Total fouls--San Jose
State 25, Montana State 23. Technical fouls--San Jose State-None, Montana
State-None. A-180