Fort Collins, Colo. – The San José State women's basketball team came out on fire from the three-point line, sinking eight in the first half and a total of 14 for the game, en route to its first victory in Colorado State's Moby Arena in nine games, 78-70 on Wednesday night.
This season the Spartans (3-21, 2-11 MW) have enjoyed the thin air of the Rockies making a total of 39 three-pointers in three games played in the state of Colorado. The 14 threes on Wednesday equals a season-high, which was set against the Colorado Buffaloes, in Boulder, back on December 6. In addition, at Air Force, in Colorado Springs, SJSU drained 11 treys. For the game San José State was 14-of-26 (54 percent) from beyond the arc; its second-best shooting performance from distance this season.
"We played a compete game tonight and got the result we deserved," head coach Jamie Craighead said. "Our hard work paid off and we were the better team throughout the game. I'm really happy for this team. They have been so close recently and I'm glad they finally got the reward for the work they continue to do."
Danae Marquez led the team with 17 point and hit a career-high five threes. She now has 58 for her career, and she vaults into 20th place on the program's career-threes list. In addition, the Fresno native had four assists and passed Joi Turner (1993-97) for 16th place on the all-time assists list. In 53 career games Marquez has 192 assists.
Megan Anderson, also from Fresno, hit 4-of-9 from the floor, including three three-pointers. She finished with 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Analyss Benally also knocked down three treys and finished with 12 points, three rebounds and three assists.
Courtesy Clark scored a career-high nine points and Mikaylah Wilson had nine points, six boards, three assists, a block and two steals. Fieme'a Hafoka also grabbed six rebounds, scored eight points and had three assists.
In total, nine of the 10 Spartans who saw action scored and all contributed with at least one rebound as San José State dominated the boards, 46-to-29. The 46 rebounds equal a season-high. The 29 boards for Colorado State (8-16, 2-11 MW) are the fewest SJSU has allowed this season and the plus-17 rebound margin is the team's highest of the season.
The first quarter was a three-point festival.
The Spartans made six and the Rams five. San José State found itself down 16-11 with 3:01 to go, when SJSU ripped off three straight treys. Benally got it going, then Hafoka joined the party and Marquez completed the triple triple. In a little over a minute and a half, the six-point deficit was erased and turned into a three-point lead. The Spartans were ahead and would never relinquish its lead for the rest of the game.
After a Benally three with 31 seconds to go in the firs the Spartans were up 22-18 and took that advantage into the second quarter.
Throughout the second period the SJSU built on the lead. An Alexis Harris offensive rebound and put back gave San José State a 40-28 advantage with 44 seconds to go before intermission, its biggest of the half, but a late CSU three-pointer cut the margin to 40-31 at the break.
In the first 20 minutes San José State was hot from the floor. The Spartans shot 43.8 percent (14-of-32), including 50 percent (8-of-16) from long range. They had 10 assists on 14 buckets and dominated the boards 23-to-11.
Coming out of the break, three of SJSU's first four buckets were from beyond the arc and with 7:15 left in the third had its biggest lead of the game, 18-points, 52-34.
But CSU went on an 11-2 run in a little over four minutes and got it back to a single-digit game, 54-45. The teams combined for just one bucket, a Rams layup with four seconds left, to send the game to the final period with San José State leading 54-47.
In the first three minutes of the fourth Colorado State continued to reduce the Spartans lead, getting it down to two points, 56-54 with 7:01 to play. But when the Spartans needed a bucket they got one.
Benally hit a jumper; Hafoka hit a three and Benally drained another three to get SJSU an eight-point lead with just under five minutes to play. A Wilson jumper with 2:44 left made it 71-60 and down the stretch San Jose State made 7-of-8 from the line to secure the win.
For the game SJSU shot 41.9 percent (26-of-62), 53.8 percent (14-of-26) from three-point range and 85.7 percent (12-of-14) from the line.
Colorado State got 80 percent of its scoring from four players led by Myanne Hamm who scored a game-high 18 points. Lore Devos had 17, Mollie Mounsey scored 11 and Lena Svanhold added 10.
San Jose State is back at home for its next game on Saturday, February 23 against Air Force. Tip off is set for 2:00 p.m. in The Event Center.