San Jose, Calif. – Coming off its longest home stand of the season, three games over 21 days, the San José State women's basketball team begins a two-game road trip starting at the Colorado Buffaloes on Thursday night in Boulder, Colorado.
San José State Spartans (1-5)
at
Colorado Buffaloes (6-1)
Thursday, December 6, 2018 - 7:00 p.m. (MT)
Boulder, Colo. (CU Event Center - 11,064)
LIVE STATS
Fans can view live stats of all San José State women's basketball games, home and away, by accessing the Live Stats feature at www.sjsuspartans.com. Click on the link on the women's basketball schedule page to follow the action.
VIDEO STREAMING
The Mountain West Network is your all-access passport to Spartan Athletics. For live and recorded video/audio of San José State women's basketball home and Mountain West road contests, the Mountain West Network is your home. Go to Mountain West Network logo at top of the Spartans Athletics home page or go to www.sjsuspartans.com/video.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Keep up with Spartans women's basketball on all our social media platforms. The team's Twitter handle is @sjswbb, Facebook page is /SanJoseStateWBB and Instagram is sjsu_wbb.
HAFOKA IS HEATING UP
This season, Fieme'a Hafoka (Jr. , G, Kihei, Maui) has returned to her natural position, a wing, after a year out of position, at trail post. After six games the change is paying dividends. In the last three games, Hafoka is averaging 15.3 points on 18-of-31 (.581) shooting from the floor and 7-of-13 (.538) from three-point range. In addition, she is at 3.0 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals in the last three match-ups.
Three games ago, Hafoka set and then reset her career scoring-high with 14 points against CSU Bakersfield (11/24) and 17 points against Pacific (11/29).
QUICK LOOK AT COLORADO
The Buffaloes got off to a 6-0 record, but lost their first game of the year on Sunday at #21/20 Miami (73-58). CU posted a 15-16 record last year, 5-13 in Pac-12 Conference play. So far this year, Colorado is averaging 74.2 points a game in its six wins and is giving up 61.3 in those games, a difference of +12.9 points per game.
Led by Kennedy Leonard (16.0/g), CU has three players scoring in double figures. Leonard also leads the team in assists (8.0/g) and steals (3.3/g). Peanut Tuitele leads the squad in rebounding (6.4/g).
JR Payne is in her third season leading the Buffaloes' program. In the two seasons leading up to this year, she posted a 32-32 record.
SJSU VS. THE PAC-12
Overall, San José State is 37-89 (29.4 percent) against Pac-12 schools. The last time the Spartans defeated a Pac-12 opponent was on December 9, 2009 in a 68-66 at #22 California. The only team SJSU has a winning record against is Stanford. San José State has won 13-of-23 meetings against the Cardinal.
IF IT'S THREE...IT'S FOR ME
Offensively, the Spartans are not shy when it comes to long distance shooting. Nationally SJSU ranks 69th in three-point attempts, 76th in three-pointers made and 24th in three-pointers per game.
In the 2017-18 season, two Spartans set program records for making threes. Analyss Benally (Jr., G, Shiprock, N.M.) sank 60, which are the most by a sophomore in program history and the ninth most by a Spartan in a single season. Coming into the Colorado game, her 72 career three-pointers place her 29 away from tenth place on the program's career list.
Megan Anderson (So., G, Fresno, Calif.) dropped in 46 treys in 2017-18, a freshman record for San José State women's basketball and the 18th most for a single-season in program history. In addition to her program record, Anderson led all Mountain West freshmen and was the fourth most accurate freshman three-point shooter in the nation last season at .438. Her .438 three-point shooting percentage is also a single-season record for the program. Her 56 career-threes entering the Colorado game rank 20th all-time and her career .409 three-point shooting percentage is the best in program history.
MARQUEZ STEPS UP IN MULTIPLE WAYS
Point guard Danae Marquez (So., PG, Fresno, Calif.), who had two starts last season, is making a big impact this year. She is the starting point guard, but it goes well beyond that. Marquez has upped her scoring from 5.2-to-7.7 points per game as well as increasing her assists from 3.3-to-5.0 a game. Her steals are up to 1.7 per game from 1.2, but perhaps the biggest surprise is she is second on the team in rebounding. The 5-5 guard is grabbing 4.2/g.
SETTLING IN NICELY
Raziya Potter (Fr., G, Tracy, Calif.) has scored in double figures in four of six games this season and had made four starts. In the last three games she is averaging 13.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.0 steals. Over those games her shooting percentage is .417 (15-of-36) and .333 (4-of-12) from three-point range. In addition, she is shooting .714 (5-of-7) from the free throw line.
BACK TO BASICS
In the 2018-19 season, head coach Jamie Craighead is emphasizing a "back to basics" approach, with particular attention being placed on the team's defense. Following a disappointing 2017-18 season, the first in which her Spartans failed to reach double-digit wins, Craighead will have to replace 45 percent of the team's offense, from what last season was the second youngest team in Division I women's basketball.
"Last year we were so young and it was a building year," Craighead said. "I don't like using that term, but ultimately that's what it was. With 11 underclassmen, it is going to take time to see results. But looking back, there was so much growth during the season. Our players competed and never made excuses, which is a testament to their resiliency and character. Last season will only help us this year and moving forward."
FAST BREAKS
Fieme'a Hafoka (Jr., G, Kihei, Maui) Captain...leads the team in scoring, steals and three-pointers. Is second in assists. Second in the MW in steals (2.7/g).
Analyss Benally (Jr., G, Shiprock, N.M.) has hit 82 buckets in her career, 72 of which are three pointers.
Cydni Lewis (So., F, Long Beach, Calif.) in the last three games is averaging 10.6 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocks while shooting 9-of-12 (.750) from the line.
Danae Marquez (So., PG, Fresno, Calif.) leads the team with 30 assists (5.0/g) which ranks third in the Mountain West. Second on the team (4.2/g) and set a single-game best with eight rebounds against CSUB (11/24).
Raziya Potter (Fr., G, Tracy, Calif.) started the first three games, the most starts for a freshman in the Jamie Craighead era since Britta Hall started the first 11 games of the 2013-14 season. The team's second-leading scorer (10.2 ppg).
Megan Anderson (So., G, Fresno, Calif.) has made at least one three-pointer in 28-of-36 career-games. Last season led team with a .438 three-point shooting percentage. She led all Mountain West freshmen and ranked fourth in the nation among freshman three-point percentage shooters.
Alexis Harris (Jr., C, Palo Alto, Calif.) set career-highs with 9 rebounds & 4 blocks vs. Southern Oregon (12/20/17) and finished 11th in the MW in blocks/g (0.8) in 2017-18.
Courtesy Clark (So., G, Sacramento, Calif.) equaled a career-high 8 pts against SFSU (11/6) and has already tripled her three-point output from a year ago.
Andrea Kohlhaas (Sr., F, Besigheim, Germany) Captain...returned to action against SFSU (11/6) after nearly a year away rehabbing after a leg injury in the fifth game of last season. This season 3-of-4 buckets have been 3-pointers.
Nefer León (Fr., G, Vitoria, Spain) scored three points in each of the first three games of the 2018-19 season.
Mikaylah Wilson (So., F, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) fourth on the team at 3.5 rebounds per game. Was the squad's leading scorer at PSU (11/11) with 14 points.