Dec. 7, 2015
SPARTANS HEAD TO WISCONSIN FOR A BOUT WITH MARQUETTEFollowing a nail-biting loss at Santa Clara Saturday night, the Spartans travel to Milwaukee, Wis., to face Big East member Marquette. Tipoff at the Bradley Center is set for 7:00 p.m. CST, and Fox 2 will broadcast the game live. It will be the second meeting between the two programs which first met in January of 1955.GAME #9San José State (4-4) vs. Marquette (6-2)Tuesday, December 8, 2015, 7:00 p.m. CSTBMO Harris Bradley Center (18,600)Milwaukee, Wis.Stretch Internet RadioFOX 2DirecTV: 618Dish Network: 397LATE SURGE COMES UP SHORT IN LOSS AT SANTA CLARASan José State and Santa Clara went into the final minute of Saturday's game deadlocked, 74-74. Frank Rogers hit a three to tie the game with a minute left, capping an 11-point Spartans comeback. A Santa Clara layup followed by a pair of made free throws in the final 45 seconds would put the game out of reach. Princeton Onwas' desperation three-ball with two seconds remaining did not connect and the Spartans fell 78-75.THE GROOVE CONTINUES FOR ROGERSRogers recorded two more double-doubles last week, giving him five for the season on four in a row. His 18 points and 13 rebounds at Santa Clara made him the first Spartan since the 2012-13 season to have four straight double-doubles. The last Spartan with five in a row was Marquin Chandler in January of 2005. Rogers, the Salinas, Calif., native leads the Mountain West in the double-doubles column.PRIDE OF WEST DE PERE FINDING HIS STROKEFreshman Cody Schwartz of West De Pere, Wis., came out with the hot hand Saturday at Santa Clara. He hit four threes in the first half to lead the Spartans at the break with 12 points. He ended the game with a season-high 15 points and grabbed five rebounds. Schwartz has now increased his season high in points in each of the last three contests. Tuesday's game at Marquette will be a homecoming for Schwartz who was a unanimous all-state selection and AP honorable mention player at West De Pere High School in 2014-15.SPARTANS LEAD MW IN ASSISTSThe Spartans are averaging a Mountain West-best 17.0 assists per game. The team has finished with more assists than turnovers in all but two games this season. The teams 81 turnovers are third-lowest in the conference. Thirteen (13) assists in the Santa Clara game snapped a four-game streak of 20+ assists.SPARTANS VS. GOLDEN EAGLESSan José State and Marquette have met just one time, ending in an 80-68 Golden Eagles victory in Milwaukee. The Big East members are out to a 6-2 start and have four players averaging double-figures scoring. Henry Ellenson leads the way at 16.3 points per game and 8.9 rebounds. Luke Fischer is a close second in scoring at 15.0 ppg. Looking at the stat sheet, Marquette is a good shooting team at 49 percent, while holding it's opponents to just 39 percent from the floor. Ellenson and Fischer both have tallied double-digit blocks on the season. The Golden Eagles are coached by Steve Wojciechowski in his second season.ROGERS DOMINATES AT GREAT ALASKA SHOOTOUTFrank Rogers was selected to the Great Alaska Shootout All-Tournament Team after averaging 22.0 points and 11.2 rebounds per game. In the win over Alaska-Anchorage, Rogers scored a career-high 32 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for his second double-double of the tournament. In three games, the senior shot 65 percent from the floor (26-40) and 63 percent from downtown (7-11). He also only turned the ball over one time while averaging 34.1 minutes per game.INSIDE ROGERS' 32-POINT GAMERogers finished the game 14 of 18 from the floor in his breakout 32-point game at Alaska-Anchorage. He was 9 of 10 with 23 points in the first half alone. Rogers scored the first two points of the game on a put-back layup and never looked back. He was also lethal on the outside including 3 of 4 from beyond the arc. The biggest bucket of the night was his last, a layup which put the Spartans up by six with 1:12 to go.WELY HITS BIG BUCKETS IN UAA WINAs San José State and Alaska-Anchorage went back-and-forth in the closing minutes, Ryan Welage stepped up and hit what may have been the biggest shots of the young season. A five-point UAA burst that cut SJSU's lead to three was silenced when Welage knocked down a three from the top of the arc at the 2:18 mark. On the Spartans' next possession, Welage cashed another one from the right corner and the Spartans took a six-point lead into the final minute.HIDDEN KEYS TO VICTORIES AT GREAT ALASKA SHOOTOUTOutside of Rogers' dominance, the Spartans had some big contributions from role players during crunch time. Brandon Clarke had two tip-ins off of missed shots with under seven minutes to play in a back-and-forth game versus UAA. Cody Schwartz, who has struggled with his shot, canned a three-ball to put the Spartans ahead at one point in the second half of that game. Leon Bahner had significant contributions in the win over San Diego, making both of his shots while adding two blocks a steal.I-T KNOWS HIS ROLE AND PLAYS IT WELLIsaac Thornton certainly played his role well at the Great Alaska Shootout, leading SJSU to a season-best 31 points of bench production versus San Diego. Thornton scored 15 of those 31, while handing out four assists. He entered the game midway through the first half, and ended up playing 27 minutes, 17 more than his average at the time. Thornton finished the tournament averaging 8.3 points, handed out 11 assists and had five steals.SCHWARTZ MAKES PRESENCE FELT IN WIN OVER UAACody Schwartz had two go-ahead baskets in the second half of the 91-87 victory over Alaska-Anchorage. One was a turnaround three from the left corner that put SJSU up 60-59 with 11:13 to go. Schwartz put the Spartans ahead by one with 9:15 left when he went flying through the lane for a one-handed tip-in off of a missed shot. He also helped grow the lead to as many as seven by knocking down a pair of free throws with 6:36 remaining.