Dec. 11, 2015
MEN'S BASKETBALL HOSTS MONTANA STATE FOR SUNDAY MATINEESan José State will try and avenge an 81-69 loss suffered at Montana State earlier this season when the Bobcats come to town Sunday afternoon. It will be the 13th meeting between the two programs, which first met way back in December of 1936. Since then, the Spartans have gone 4-1 against the Bobcats at home. You can find Montana State in the SJSU record book's "the last time" section, for being one of the victims of Adrian Oliver's successive 30-point games, which happened in February of 2011.GAME #10San José State (4-5) vs. Montana State (4-4)Sunday, December 13, 2:00 p.m. PSTThe Event CenterSan Jose, Calif.Watch:Spartan Digital NetworkListen: KLIV 1590 AM & Stretch Internet RadioLive Stats: sjsu.statbroadcast.comTICKETSPurchase your tickets today for Sunday's game by visiting the ticket office website, or calling 408-924-7589. The Spartan Ticket Office is your one stop shop for tickets to all SJSU Athletics events.BE SOCIAL WITH YOUR SPARTANSSan José State Men's Basketball is active on both Twitter (@SJSUMBB) and Instagram (@SpartanMensHoops). By following along fans can get scoring and scheduling updates, and check out some of the featured photos from home games throughout the season. Mention us on Twitter and maybe you'll end up on our list of top tweets!SPARTANS SHOW THEIR GRIT IN LOSS AT MARQUETTEThe Spartans found themselves down 24 points just 10 minutes into the game at Marquette Tuesday night in Milwaukee. Instead of packing it in, SJSU stages a comeback, outscoring the Golden Eagles by 15 over the next 10 minutes and went into the locker down by nine. Cody Schwartz's conventional three-point play early in the second half cut the lead to six, but Marquette would end up pulling away for an 80-62 victory. SJSU is now 0-2 versus Marquette and 0-4 against "the seven" in the Big East.CLARKE BRINGS ENERGY OFF THE BENCHFreshman forward Brandon Clarke entered the game Tuesday and scored six points in less than three minutes with a pair of jumpers and a slam dunk. His up-and-under two-handed slam in the second half was one of the top plays throughtout the first 10 games. Clarke helped spark the run, which cut Marquette's 24-point lead down to six, and he finished the game with a season-high 10 points.USING MARQUETTE AS A LESSON FOR CONFERENCE PLAYHead coach Dave Wojcik said after Tuesday's game that playing a team like Marquette makes for a good test before entering conference play. "This was a good experience for our young guys," Wojcik said. "We are going to continue building our schedule with these games each year." It was only the program's fourth game against "the seven" from the big east.LAST TIME OUT VERSUS MONTANA STATESan José State fell to the Bobcats in Bozeman, 81-69, earlier this year on November 20. The sore thumb sticking out in the stats from the first meeting are the rebounding totals, 45-25, in favor of Montana State. It's remains the worst SJSU has been outrebounded all season. Princeton Onwas scored a career-high 21 points, but he was outshined by Montana State's Marcus Colbert, who finished with 27 points. Colbert was on fire in the second half, and did not let the Spartans get any closer than nine points of the lead.SJSU VERSUS THE BIG SKYThe Spartans are 76-56 (.576) all-time against current Big Sky opponents. They lead Montana State in the all-time series 7-5 and are 4-2 at home. SJSU has racked up 20 wins versus Sacramento State over the years, by far the most of any Big Sky opponent. The only current member of the Big Sky with a winning record against SJSU is Northern Arizona at 4-2.DOUBLE-DOUBLE TROUBLEFrank Rogers leads the Mountain West and is tied for 11th nationally with his five double-doubles this season. His streak of four straight was snapped at Marquette when he managed seven points and seven rebounds. Together with Ryan Welage's two double-doubles, the Spartans lead all teams in the MW in that category.STILL MW LEADERS IN ASSISTSSan José State remains the conference leader in total assists (148) and assists per game (16.4). The team is on pace for 492 assists on the year, which would shatter the total from a year ago (294).CONFERENCE PLAY IS LOOMINGSunday's game will begin a countdown to Mountain West play, as the team will have just two more contests before Wednesdays and Saturdays are booked until the middle of march. Utah State comes to the Event Center on December 30 to kickoff conference action, but first SJSU visits Seattle U (12/20) and hosts Life Pacific College (12/22).