Jan. 2, 2017
MEN'S BASKETBALL TAKES ON COLORADO STATE WEDNESDAY NIGHTSan José State returns to the Event Center on Wednesday night for a 7:00 p.m. (PT) tipoff against Colorado State. The Spartans are looking to bounce back from a tough loss at Nevada and get their first-ever win over Colorado State. Tickets are on sale now at the Spartans Ticket Office. Campus Insiders and the Mountain West Network will broadcast the game, and Justin Allegri will have the call on KLIV 1590 AM radio.
GAME #13
San José State 7-5, 0-1 MW) vs. Colorado State (9-6, 1-1 MW)Wednesday, January 4, 2017, 7:00 p.m. (PT)The Event Center (5,000)San Jose, Calif.
TICKETS: Spartan Ticket Office (408) 924-7589TV: Campus Insiders / Mountain West NetworkRADIO: KLIV 1590 AMOFF THE TOPSan José State lost all three meetings with Colorado State last season, including an 80-61 defeat in the opening round of the Mountain West Championship Tournament. That lopsided result resembled nothing from the first two games during the regular season where the two teams went into overtime in San Jose, and played another tightly contested game in Fort Collins. Fast forward to Wednesday night's game and you have SJSU's top-five scoring offense in the Mountain West against the league's third-best defense. The Spartans and Rams are also two of the Mountain West's top rebounding teams so far in 2016-17.BATTLE ON THE BACKBOARDSColorado State's +4.1 rebounding margin over its opponents are second in the league. Right behind in third is San José State with at +3.8. The Rams and Spartans both average 12.0 offensive rebounds per game which is tops in the Mountain West. CSU's Emmanuel Omogbo is the conference's only player averaging over 10 rebounds per game. The Spartans have two players that are top-15 rebounders in the conference: Brandon Clarke (7.7rpg, 5th) and Ryan Welage (5.1 rpg, 15th).CLARKE DOESN'T MISS A BEATWhile San José State stumbled out of the gate in the Mountain West opener at Nevada, Brandon Clarke continued to play well. Against a couple of the league's best big-men in Jordan Caroline and Cameron Oliver, Clarke made 8-of-16 from the floor for 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds. The sophomore is eighth in the MW in scoring (15.1 ppg), fifth in rebounding (7.7), second in field goal percentage (.550) and second in blocks per game (2.1).LOOKING FOR A BOUNCE-BACK GAMESan José State will try to bounce back against Colorado State after a dismal shooting performance in the 80-55 loss to Nevada last week in the MW opener. The Spartans shot a season-low 29.2 percent (19-65) from the floor in the loss. San José State failed to hit a three in the first half and ended up 2-for-21 from downtown - another season low. Brandon Clarke and Gary Williams, Jr., combined to hit 13 shots against the Wolf Pack, while the rest of the team combined to connect on six baskets.SERIES HISTORY WITH COLORADO STATESan José State is winless against Colorado State in 13 tries dating back to the first meeting in 1969. SJSU is 0-7 against the Rams as member of the Mountain West with a 12.5-point average margin of defeat. That margin shrank to just 4.5 points in the two regular-season meetings last year. The Rams edged the Spartans 85-84 in overtime when the teams met inside The Event Center on Jan. 9, 2016, and won again 74-66 later in the month in Fort Collins.JAMES CONTINUES TO ROLLPoint guard Jalen James had matched his previous career-high of 13 points twice this season before bursting for 23 points in the most recent win over Southern Utah (12/23). James, the team's leading scorer off the bench at 9.3 points per game, made 6-of-10 from the field and 8-of-10 from the foul line in his career-night. The redshirt-junior is building his best season as a Spartan, helped most by his confidence shooting the ball - especially from 3-point range where he's connecting on 41 percent of his shots, compared to his career mark of 29 percent.WELAGE CANS FIVE THREES IN WINAfter sinking just one basket at Nevada, Ryan Welage will try to get back on track like when he made 5-of-6 from downtown to tie a career-high in the nonconference finale win over Southern Utah. He finished the evening with a season-high 22 points and averaged 16.6 points per game during SJSU's three-game win streak.GARY WILLIAMS CONTINUES TO PRODUCESpartan guard Gary Williams, Jr., has proved over the course of the season that he can produce in a number of roles. He was a starter during consecutive wins over Washington State, Idaho and Santa Clara before returning to the bench. As a reserve in the win over Southern Utah he produced a season-high 17 points, nine of which were earned at the foul line. Since returning to a reserve role in the last five games, Williams is second on the team in scoring at 12.2 points per game while grabbing 4.8 rebounds per contest. Williams has been scoring with more efficient shooting, at 46.5 percent in the last five contests compared to his career shooting clip of 36.6 percent.TWO 20-POINT SCORERS LEAD SPARTANS PAST SOUTHERN UTAHJalen James with a career-high 23 points and Ryan Welage with a season-high 22 points, led San José State to a 92-82 win over Southern Utah in the team's 2016-17 nonconference finale. The results gives the Spartans their best record heading into conference play since the 2010-11 season when they were 8-3 entering Western Athletic Conference action. Welage was in on the last time SJSU had two players score 20 or more points in a game when he and Princeton Onwas has 23 and 21 points respectively on the road at San Diego State.SPARTANS EDGE BOWLING GREEN WITH CLARKE'S GAME-WINNERSan José State came out on top of Bowling Green 77-76 thanks to Brandon Clarke's game-winning tip-in with 1.2 seconds remaining in regulation. Clarke's shot saved the day as the Spartans had an 18-point lead over the Falcons at one point in the second half. Clarke finished with game-highs of 24 points and 14 rebounds. The win was San José State's fifth in six games and guaranteed that the team will head into conference play next week with a winning record.CLARKE WINS MW PLAYER OF THE WEEKFor his performance in the win over Bowling Green, Brandon Clarke was named the Mountain West Player of the Week for games played Dec. 12-18. Not only did he have the game-winning tip-in, but he finished with his fourth double-double of the year with 24 points and a season-high 14 rebounds. The Desert Vista High School graduate finished 9-of-12 shooting from the floor, which moved him into second among all Mountain West players in 2016-17 for shooting percentage.THORNTON MOVES UPIsaac Thornton is now alone in second all-time at SJSU for career steals after taking the ball away four times in the win over Bowling Green. The senior trails only Justin Graham (2007-11) who finished his career with 209 steals. Thornton is currently second among all Mountain West players this season averaging 2.0 steals per game.TOP RANKS IN THE MOUNTAIN WESTSan José State currently owns the league's best rebounding margin over the opponents at +5.5. The team is averaging 38.1 rebounds per game, which ranks third in the league. A big part of SJSU's rebounding advantage is the offensive rebounding category, where the team is also tops in the league at 12.4 per game. Other top-5 rankings in the MW include: Scoring offense (77.2 ppg, 4th), Made 3-pointers per game (7.7, 5th), turnover margin (+1.5, 3rd) and steals per game (7.5, 2nd).SPARTANS TIE PROGRAM RECORDSan José State recorded 30 assists on 39 made baskets in the win over Life Pacific. The mark tied the single-game record set in 2001 against Holy Names and became the new 2016-17 high among Mountain West teams.FIVE SINGLE-GAME HIGHS IN THE MOUNTAIN WESTSan José State owns five single-game highs so far this year in the Mountain West:- 30 assists vs. Life Pacific College, 12/10- 12 field goals made by Brandon Clarke vs. Portland, 11/15- 26 field goals attempted by Brandon Clarke vs. Portland, 11/15- 10 assists by Isaiah Nichols vs. Portland, 11/15- 6 blocks by Brandon Clarke at Idaho, 11/29THE HAWK FLYS UNDER THE RADARBrandon Mitchell (6-6, Jr., F, Memphis, Tenn.), aka the hawk, has been a spark off the bench in limited minutes throughout the year. After redshirting last season, Mitchell has returned to average 3.7 points and is the team's third-leading rebounder at 4.4 per game. He played a season-high 22 minutes in the win over Bowling Green, and had one of his most productive games - eight points on 4-of-6 shooting and eight rebounds. Moments like his 3-ball that ignited an 18-0 run in the Santa Clara win, and his pair of blocks which helped the Spartans increase a three-point lead to 11 points at Washington State, have been turning points during games.