Jan. 27, 2017
SPARTANS FACE RUNNIN' REBELS SATURDAY
San José State returns home Saturday to face UNLV for a 2:00 p.m. (PT) tip on the Mountain West Network. Come to the Event Center to see the Mountain West's second-leading scorer in Brandon Clarke and the Spartans take on the Rebels who stand just one game ahead in the Mountain West standings. The game can also be heard on KLIV 1590 AM with Justin Allegri's play-by-play call.Game #20San José State (9-10, 2-6 MW) vs. UNLV (10-11, 3-5 MW)Saturday, January 28, 2017, 2:00 p.m. (PT)The Event Center (5,000)
San Jose, Calif.
Tickets: Spartan Ticket Office - (408) 924-7589
TV: Mountain West Network
Radio: KLIV 1590 AMOFF THE TOPThe last win for San José State over UNLV was January 10, 1996 at home, the teams have met seven times since then ... Spartan forward Brandon Clarke enters as the league's third-leading overall scorer at 18.4 points per game and is second during league play at 23.4 points per game ... San José State is looking to end a three-game losing streak which matches the longest such streak of the year ... A victory would give SJSU 10 wins in a season for the first time since the 2010-11 season.SPARTANS LET CSU PULL AWAYSan José State went into halftime trailing by just four points on the road at Colorado State, but the Rams backcourt dup of Gian Clavell and Prentiss Nixon put the Spartans away in the second period. The CSU lead grew to as many as 15 points, and although SJSU was able to cut it down to five points in the final minute, Colorado State put the Spartans away by a score of 81-72.CLARKE BATTLES CLAVELL IN SECOND HALFThe Spartans had no answer defensively for Colorado State's Gian Clavell who scored 17 second-half points. But on the other end, Brandon Clarke did everything he could to balance out the scoring with 20 points of his own in the second period. Clavell came out of the halftime locker room on fire, scoring nine of the Rams' first 11 points. Then Clarke answered by scoring 10 straight points for the Spartans. Clarke finished the half with 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting. The rest of the team was 7-for-24 shooting for the half.THREE-GAME SLIDE MATCHES LONGEST OF THE SEASONThe loss to Colorado State was SJSU's third in a row, matching a similar streak from earlier in the year with consecutive losses to Portland, Denver and then #15-Saint Mary's. Brandon Clarke has been the bright spot during the skid, averaging 23.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game while shooting 63.6 percent (28-44) from the field. Meanwhile the rest of the team has combined for 34.6 percent (46-133) shooting in the last three games.3-POINT SHOOTING CRITICALThe Spartans are 15-for-58 (25.9 percent) shooting from beyond the arc on the current three-game losing streak. Although the Spartans rely heavily on Brandon Clarke's presence on the inside, a common thread in SJSU's wins this season is good 3-point shooting. In each of the team's last five wins, SJSU has shot better than 43 percent from downtown - Three of the five wins have been above 47 percent from deep. On the flip side, while SJSU is last in 3-point shooting percentage during conference play (28.4 percent), UNLV is next-to-last at 30.6 percent.A TOP-FIVE PLAYERBrandon Clarke continues to rank in the conference's top-five in numerous categories. Overall, he's third in scoring at 18.4 points per game, first in shooting percentage at 60.7 percent, second in blocks per game at 2.2. The list goes on, and in most categories such as scoring, his ranks are even higher during MW play:2nd - 23.4 points per game1st - 65.8 field goal percentage3rd - 2.3 blocks per game3rd - 2.6 offensive rebounds per game6th - 8.0 rebounds per game10th - 1.3 steals per gameSERIES HISTORY WITH UNLVA win for San José State on Saturday would snap a seven-game losing streak to UNLV, which holds a 35-4 lead over the Spartans in the all-time series.The last win against UNLV was at home on January 10, 1996 by the Spartans' team which won the '96 Big West Championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. The Rebels have won the four meetings against the Spartans as members of the Mountain West by an average of 18.5 points per game. The most recent meeting ended in a 64-61 UNLV win last season in Vegas and was the slimmest margin of victory over SJSU in the all-time series.SPARTANS LET ONE SLIP AWAY AT UNLVSan José State led by as many as 15 points late in the first half of the last meeting with UNLV on February 10, 2016 in Vegas. But a string of six turnovers in a span of 2:25 down the stretch of the second half and poor free throw shooting handed the Rebels a 64-61 win. Current Golden State Warrior Patrick McCaw led UNLV in that game with 16 points, while Brandon Clarke led the Spartans with 15 points and 14 rebounds.MORE ON UNLVUNLV comes in at 10-11 overall and 3-5 in Mountain West play. The team has four players averaging double-figures in scoring led by Jalen Poyser at 12.5 points per game. The Rebels dropped their most recent outing on the road at Wyoming, 66-65, and are 2-4 overall on the road. During conference play UNLV and the Spartans are averaging 69.2 and 69.0 points per game respectively. The Rebels are coached by Marvin Menzies in his first season. Menzies is very familiar with The Event Center after many years of battling the Spartans in Western Athletic Conference play as the head coach at New Mexico State.