LARAMIE, Wyo. – Second-half turnovers and scoring woes doomed San Jose State men's basketball as they fell to hot-shooting Wyoming, 59-46, Wednesday at the Arena-Auditorium. The Spartans shot just 33 percent from the field as they dropped their sixth-straight conference game.
After falling to an 11-0 deficit to start the game, the Spartans roared back as back-to-back 3-point baskets from Isaiah Nichols and Noah Baumann sparked a 16-5 run over the final 7:40 of the half to tie things up at 24-24 at halftime. Nichols, playing his best ball of the season from off the bench, had seven points and three assists at the break and finished the game with nine points.
Michael Steadman buried a jumper with :09 seconds to go in the first half to give SJSU their first lead of the game, however a foul on the other end of the court with under one second to play gave Wyoming's Justin James a chance to shoot three free throws. He made 2-of-3 to tie the game.
After the intermission, the Spartans hit the first two field goals of the half to take a 28-24 lead, however it was short-lived as Wyoming (5-14, 1-5) went on a 20-4 run that spanned 11:02 to take a 47-32 lead until Brae Ivey stopped the bleeding with a triple with 6:47 to play. The Spartans had nine of their 11 second-half turnovers in the stretch and finished with 16 for the game.
Noah Baumann's triple with 5:27 remaining cut the Cowboys' lead to nine at 47-38, but that was as close as the Spartans would get for the remainder as SJSU finished with just eight made field goals (8-of-23) in the second period.
The Spartans also struggled from 3-point range shooting 23.8 percent (5-of-21) while Wyoming hit 37.5 percent (9-of-24) of their attempts.
Michael Steadman led SJSU with 11 points and fell just shy of a double-double with eight rebounds. Chastain, who got his second start of the season in place of the injured Oumar Barry, finished with a season-best seven points and four rebounds.
James led Wyoming with 20 points while Hunter Thompson poured on 14 more. The Cowboys shot 56.1 percent (23-41) from the field
The Spartans won the rebounding battle 33-25, including a 15-2 margin on the offensive boards. Both teams shot 50 percent from the free throw line.
SJSU will host Air Force on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 6:00 p.m. PT in the Event Center.
