Dec. 17, 2017
San Jose, Calif. --- Brandon Mitchell was a spark for the Spartans in his return to basketball, but his perfect shooting night wasn't enough to overcome South Dakota and the San José State men's basketball team lost, 76-62, inside The Event Center.
Mitchell, the three-year men's basketball letterwinner (2013-15, 2016-17) made his 2017-18 debut after playing wide receiver for the Spartans football team this fall. He hit all six of his shots for a career-high 17 points in 23 minutes off the bench.
His energy helped the Spartans build a lead of 12 during the first half. Mitchell's jumper with 11:05 on the clock made it 21-14 Spartans, and a couple minutes later Oumar Barry grabbed an offensive board and put it back to make it a 10-point SJSU lead.
On the next possession Mitchell's swat on defense led to a Ryan Welage basket that made it 26-14 Spartans lead.
But that lead evaporated over the course of the next five minutes when the Coyotes went on a 17-4 run. With 3:21 left in the half the Spartans were hanging on to just a one-point, 31-30, lead. Keith Fisher III's offensive rebound and put-back was the last basket of the half and gave SJSU the 37-33 advantage heading into the locker room.
South Dakota's Tyler Hagedorn buried his first 3-pointer of the second half at the 19:15 mark, and that was only a sign of things to come for him and the Coyotes.
Hagedorn scored 19 second-half points on the way to a game-high 27 points. He was 5-of-6 from downtown and his teammate Matt Mooney knocked down 3-of-4 from deep. Together they helped South Dakota outscore the Spartans 19-6 through the first 6:32 of the period and 43-25 in the second half.
After another Hagedorn three-ball gave South Dakota a 52-43 lead with 13:28 to play, Mitchell stopped the bleeding with a jumper. SJSU worked it back to a three-point deficit, 57-54, with 8:54 remaining.
Then in a matter of 1:21 Mooney took South Dakota's six-point lead and doubled it with a pair of threes and a layup. He struck again for a three with 3:20 to go which gave South Dakota its largest lead of 16 points.
Mooney finished with 18 points and Carlton Hurst and Trey Burch-Manning each had 11 points. Welage with 13 points and Fisher III with 10 points joined Mitchell in double-figure scoring for SJSU.
The two teams were even in shooting with the Spartans hitting 24-of-54 (44.4 percent) from the field while South Dakota was 23-of-52 (44.2) shooting. The big difference was the shooting from 3-point land where the Spartans were just 3-for-12 while South Dakota went 11-for-22.
San José State wraps up its non-conference schedule on Thursday, December 21, at Santa Clara. Tipoff at The Leavey Center is set for 7:00 p.m.
Newspaper Box Score
San Diego vs San José State
12/17/17 3:00 PM at San Jose, Calif. (The Event Center)
At San Jose, Calif. (The Event Center)
SAN DIEGO 76, SAN JOSé STATE 62
SAN DIEGO (11-3)
MASSALSKI, Yauhen 8-16 5-6 27; MARTINEZ, Jose 7-16 0-0 18; GRAY, Juwan 3-6
4-7 11; CALCATERRA, Joey 2-3 7-8 11; CARTER III, Olin 3-6 1-2 7; Nick Fuller
0-1 2-2 2; Austin Sparks 0-0 0-0 0; NEUBAUER, Cameron 0-3 0-0 0; FERRARI,
Vinny 0-0 0-0 0; WRIGHT, Isaiah 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-52 19-25 76.
SAN JOSé STATE (2-8)
Mitchell, Brandon 6-6 4-5 17; Welage, Ryan 5-9 2-2 13; FISHER, Keith 4-6 2-3
10; Nichols, Isaiah 2-5 2-3 6; Carlisle, Nai 2-7 1-2 5; Barry, Oumar 2-3 0-0
4; Chastain, Ashtin 2-5 0-2 4; Hillsman, Jaycee 1-6 0-0 3; Baumann, Noah 0-6
0-0 0; Simmons, Caleb 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-54 11-17 62.
San Diego..................... 33 43 - 76
San José State................ 37 25 - 62
3-point goals--San Diego 11-22 (MASSALSKI, Yauhen 6-8; MARTINEZ, Jose 4-8;
GRAY, Juwan 1-1; NEUBAUER, Cameron 0-2; CARTER III, Olin 0-2; CALCATERRA,
Joey 0-1), San José State 3-12 (Hillsman, Jaycee 1-3; Welage, Ryan 1-2;
Mitchell, Brandon 1-1; Carlisle, Nai 0-1; Baumann, Noah 0-3; Simmons, Caleb
0-1; Nichols, Isaiah 0-1). Fouled out--San Diego-None, San José State-None.
Rebounds--San Diego 30 (MASSALSKI, Yauhen 6), San José State 35 (FISHER,
Keith 8). Assists--San Diego 5 (CARTER III, Olin 3), San José State 8
(Barry, Oumar 2; Nichols, Isaiah 2). Total fouls--San Diego 16, San José
State 20. Technical fouls--San Diego-None, San José State-None. A-1424