Dec. 3, 2016
San Jose, Calif. --- The San José State men's basketball team has won three straight games over Division I opponents for the first time since 2012 with Saturday night's 55-40 victory over Santa Clara inside The Event Center.
The win is San José State's first over Santa Clara in a home game since Dec. 1, 1996.
The Spartan defense suffocated the Broncos throughout a majority of the game, allowing just 13-of-46 shots to drop. SCU's leading scorer Jared Brownridge (20.6 ppg), managed just 11 points on 2-for-11 shooting.
The rest of the Broncos couldn't get much to go down either - They connected on just three field goals in the second half.
Isaiah Nichols' tip-in with one second left in the first half gave SJSU the 28-26 advantage heading into the locker room despite 10 first-period turnovers. Nichols came out and swished a mid-range jumper to open the second half, and the Spartans took off from there on what became an 18-0 run over 7:23 spanning both halves.
Santa Clara's first basket of the final 20 minutes didn't come until the 7:37 mark when Matt Hauser hit a jumper. Hauser finished with a game-high 14 points.
Meanwhile, Brandon Clarke caught a lob from Nichols and jammed it down hard despite being fouled, Ryan Welage hit a floater in the paint and Jalen James connected from downtown - all part of that 18-0 run.
The Spartans took their largest lead of 16 points for the first of four times when Welage hit a jump-hook in the lane at the 14:15 mark. Welage and Nichols with 12 points each led the Spartans in scoring.
SJSU trailed by nine, 19-10 with 9:04 left in the opening period. But Brandon Mitchell's 3-ball seconds later swung the momentum San José State's way.
San José State finished the game shooting 46.3 percent (19-41). The Spartans only turned the ball over five time in the second half. SJSU edged the Broncos in rebounding 33-30.
Next up, the Spartans visit the University of Montana on Wednesday, Dec. 7, for a 7:00 p.m. (MT) tip.
TIP-INS: San José State has won three straight games against Division I opponents for the first time since 2012 with wins over Montana State, UC Davis and Sacramento State ... The last time SJSU won back-to-back games while holding a Division I opponent to less than 50 points was in 2000 with wins over UC Santa Barbara (62-41) and Northern Arizona (49-46) ... The last time San José State held a Division I opponent to 40 points or less was on Feb 18, 1961 in a 39-40 loss to the University of San Francisco.
Newspaper Box Score
Santa Clara vs San Jose State
12/3/16 7:00 PM at The Event Center (San Jose, Calif.)
At The Event Center (San Jose, Calif.)
SAN JOSE STATE 55, SANTA CLARA 40
SANTA CLARA (3-6)
HAUSER, Matt 5-11 4-6 14; BROWNRIDGE, Jared 2-11 5-6 11; HEALY, Kai 3-7 0-0
7; KRATCH, Nate 2-6 0-0 5; JADERSTEN, Henrik 1-2 0-0 2; DOUGLAS, Akil 0-1
1-2 1; HUBBARD, Matt 0-0 0-0 0; LEWIS, Tony 0-0 0-0 0; NDUMANYA, Emmanuel
0-0 0-2 0; PUGH, Jarvis 0-8 0-2 0; WARDLOW, Evan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-46
10-18 40.
SAN JOSE STATE (4-3)
Nichols, Isaiah 5-8 1-4 12; Welage, Ryan 5-10 2-3 12; Clarke, Brandon 4-6
1-3 9; Thornton, Isaac 1-2 4-4 6; Mitchell, Brandon 2-4 0-0 5; James, Jalen
1-6 0-0 3; WILLIAMS, JR. GARY 0-0 3-4 3; Hillsman, Jaycee 1-2 0-0 2;
Chastain, Ashtin 0-0 2-2 2; Brown, Terrell 0-1 1-2 1; Schwartz, Cody 0-2 0-0
0. Totals 19-41 14-22 55.
Santa Clara................... 26 14 - 40
San Jose State................ 28 27 - 55
3-point goals--Santa Clara 4-16 (BROWNRIDGE, Jared 2-5; HEALY, Kai 1-3;
KRATCH, Nate 1-1; PUGH, Jarvis 0-3; HAUSER, Matt 0-4), San Jose State 3-10
(James, Jalen 1-2; Mitchell, Brandon 1-1; Nichols, Isaiah 1-2; SCHWARTZ,
Cody 0-2; Welage, Ryan 0-3). Fouled out--Santa Clara-None, San Jose
State-None. Rebounds--Santa Clara 30 (PUGH, Jarvis 6; JADERSTEN, Henrik 6),
San Jose State 33 (Clarke, Brandon 5; Mitchell, Brandon 5; Welage, Ryan 5).
Assists--Santa Clara 6 (PUGH, Jarvis 3), San Jose State 10 (Thornton, Isaac
4). Total fouls--Santa Clara 20, San Jose State 20. Technical fouls--Santa
Clara-None, San Jose State-None. A-2237