San Jose, Calif. – With the start of the 2019 Army Reserve Mountain West Basketball Championship just 10 days away, the San José State women's basketball team is looking to move up the standings to secure a better seed in the tournament. The Spartans are currently two games behind San Diego State, which sits in eighth place and one behind Air Force which is in ninth.
San José State Spartans (4-22, 3-12 MW)
vs.
San Diego State Aztecs (10-16, 5-10 MW)
Saturday, February 27, 2019 - 2:00 p.m. (PT)
San Jose, Calif. (The Event Center - 5,000)
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.
COACH CRAIGHEAD AND PLAYER INTERVIEWS
All interview requests for Head Coach Jamie Craighead or any players should be made through the SJSU Athletics Media Relations Office, 408-924-1208, at least 24 hours in advance. Players are available as their class schedules, practices and meetings permit. On game days, players will not be available until post-game. Media members are also required to make arrangements with the SJSU Athletics Media Relations Office to attend any practice session.
QUICK LOOK AT SAN DIEGO STATE
The Aztecs posted a 5-6 mark in non-conference play and enter Saturday's game with a 5-10 conference mark and currently sit in eighth place in the Mountain West standings. On the road, San Diego State is 3-9, including a 1-6 record in conference games, and is being outscored its opponents by an average of 8.5 points per contest, 72.8-to-64.3 points per game. Mountain West teams have been even more successful against the Aztecs on their home floors, outscoring them by 14.3 points, 74.6-to-60.3 points per game.
Freshman Sophia Ramos' 14.0 points per game leads the team and she also tops the squad with 4.5 assists per outing. Mallory Adams, also a freshman, paces the Aztecs with 8.7 rebounds per game. Junior Zayn Dornstauder is blocking 1.2 shots per contest and sophomore Najé Murray is at 2.1 steals per game, both team-highs.
Stacie Terry is in her seventh season as the head coach at San Diego State. She brought a career record, all with the Aztecs, of 59-93 in to 2018-19.
TWO IN A ROW!
With its 73-60 victory over Air Force on February 23 in combination with a 78-70 win at Colorado State (2/20), the Spartans had won back-to-back games for the first time in a while. You have to go back to December 20, 2017 (89-87 win over Southern Oregon) and December 28, 2017 (79-66 win over Utah State) to find the last time SJSU put together back-to-back wins.
SJSU GETS REVENGE AGAINST AIR FORCE
Four players scored in double figures and the Spartans led by as many as 27 points before cruising to a 73-60 victory over the Air Force Falcons last Saturday. On 7-of-8 shooting from the floor and 2-of-4 from the line, Mikaylah Wilson led the Spartans with 16 points, which equals her career-high, and grabbed nine rebounds. Raziya Potter and Danae Marquez each scored 12 points. Potter grabbed four rebounds and had three steals. Marquez grabbed two rebounds, five steals, eight assists and only one turnover. Analyss Benally added 11 points, one rebound, one assist, a steal and a blocked shot. The Spartans took the lead inside two minutes to go in the first and were never threatened after that. The win avenges an 88-77 loss in Colorado Springs on January 26.
SPARTANS BREAK FORT COLLINS CURSE
From its first appearance in the 1983-84 season and in the eight subsequent appearances, the Spartans were never able to get a victory in Colorado State's Moby Arena. Finally, on its tenth try, San José State broke the curse of Fort Collins with its 78-70 victory on Wednesday night. The Spartans, who have suffered some very lopsided losses in Moby Arena, were on the verge of a victory there in 2016-17. SJSU had a five-point lead with 49 second to play, but CSU tied the game before regulation time expired and won it in overtime, 70-67.
With the win at Colorado State, New Mexico's The Pit is the only arena, among conference opponents, where San José State is winless. SJSU is 0-4 all-time in Albuquerque and will try to break that skid on Wednesday night.
FINALLY...SOMEONE IN THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR
It took 13 games, but with its 78-70 victory at Colorado State on Wednesday, the Spartans climbed out of last place in the league standings. In combination with the team's 73-60 victory over Air Force (2/23) and a Colorado State loss at Wyoming (2/23), 56-32, San José State has put distance between themselves and the Rams and are now focused on Air Force which is one game ahead of them in the Mountain West standings.
DIVERSE SCORING OPTIONS
The Spartans have seven players who are averaging between 7.0 and 9.0 points per game and each of the seven has led the team in scoring at least two times this season.
LOVING THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN AIR
This season the Spartans 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 at Colorado State (2/20) equals a season-high, which was set against the Colorado Buffaloes, in Boulder, back on December 6. In addition, at Air Force (1/26) SJSU drained 11 treys. At CSU, San José State was 14-of-26 (54 percent) from beyond the arc; its second-best shooting performance from distance this season.
WILSON LOVING MOUNTAIN WEST PLAY
In the Spartans' 15 Mountain West games, all of them starts, Mikaylah Wilson (So., F, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) is averaging 8.3 ppg, has gone 54-of-106 (50.9 percent) from the floor and is pulling down 5.9 rebounds. In addition, over that stretch, she has 13 steals and 15 blocks. In the game at San Diego State (2/2), Wilson recorded the second double double of her career with 16 points and 11 rebounds and two games later, vs. New Mexico (2/13), picked up her third and second in three games with 14 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
In the first seven games in which she appeared this season all non-conference contests, Wilson was shooting just 32.6 percent (17-of-52), averaging 5.5 points and 3.1 rebounds.
BENALLY CLIMBING UP THE CAREER THREE-POINT LIST
With four threes and a single-game scoring high of 17 points against Boise State (2/9), Analyss Benally (Jr., G, Shiprock, N.M.) moved into the 10th spot on the Spartans career three-pointers list and entering the San Diego State game has made 108 threes in 73 career games (1.5/g). However, if you take into account that she played sparingly as a freshman (17 games and made just one three-pointer) the numbers are even more impressive.
In the last 56 games, Benally has made 107 threes, slightly less than 2.0 per game. That average would rank third in SJSU history behind Rebecca Woodberry (2013-15) who made 171 in 61 games (2.8/g) and Dezz Ramos (2015-17) 145 in 61 games (2.4/g).
If Benally continues at her pace of the last 56 games she would set the program's career three-pointers mark with 214 passing Kari Steele (1993-97) who currently holds the record with 199. She currently is six behind Cricket Williams (2000-04) who made 114 in her Spartans career and is in ninth place all-time.
DANAE HAVING A BREAKOUT SEASON AND AGAINST UTAH STATE...A BREAKOUT DAY
Point guard Danae Marquez (So., PG, Fresno, Calif.), who had two starts last season, is making a big impact this year, getting starts in 22 of the 25 games in which she has appeared this season, 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-4.4 a game. Her steals are up to 1.6 per game from 1.2, and the 5-5 point guard is grabbing 3.1 rebounds per game.
MORE ON MARQUEZ...
In six of the last nine games, Danae Marquez (So., PG, Fresno, Calif.) has scored in double figures and has upped her points per game to 10.0 during that span. At Colorado State she led the team with 17 points, including a career-high five three pointers. At New Mexico (2/27) she dished out a career-high nine assists.
In the team's win against Utah State (1/30), Marquez scored a career-high 21 points, dished out five assists, and grabbed two rebounds and had two steals. She was 6-of-6 from the line down the stretch to secure the victory.
IT'S ALL ABOUT POSITIONING
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 26 games the change is paying dividends. Hafoka's scoring average is up to 8.4 ppg from 6.1 per game last year and that is just the beginning. Her shooting percentages are all up...field goal percentage is up from .355-to-.407, three-point field goal percentage is .354 this year compared to .243 a year ago and the free throw shooting us up to .750 from .600. In addition, her assists average is up from 1.8-to-2.7. Earlier this season, Hafoka set her career scoring-high with 17 points against Pacific (11/29) and matched it against Santa Clara (12/15).
IT'S A THREE THING
Offensively the Spartans are not shy when it comes to long distance shooting. Nationally, SJSU ranks 30th in three-point attempts, 47th in three-pointers made and 36th in three-pointers per game and lead the MW in each stat.
In the 2017-18 season 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. Entering the SDSU game, her 108 career three-pointers put her in tenth place on the all-time list.
Megan Anderson (So., G, Fresno, Calif.) dropped in 46 treys in 2017-18, a freshman record for San José State women's basketball. 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, a single-season record for the program. Her 97 career-threes entering the San Diego State game rank 12th all-time and her career .394 three-point shooting percentage is the best in program history.
MORE CAREER-LIST FACTS
Entering the San Diego State game, Andrea Kohlhaas (Sr., F, Besigheim, Germany) has 53 threes and sits in 23rd place on the career list. Kohlhaas makes threes at a .325 percentage rate, which is eighth best in program history.
Cydni Lewis (So., F, Long Beach, Calif.) has 58 blocks in 56 game and is in 12th place on the career list.
Alexis Harris (Jr., C, Palo Alto, Calif.) has swatted 45 shots, 24th all-time, and averages 0.6 blocks per game which is 23rd on the blocked shots per game list.
With nine assists at New Mexico (2/27), Danae Marquez (So., PG, Fresno, Calif.) has 209 in her Spartans' career and is in 16th place on the all-time list.
Mikaylah Wilson (So., F, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) ranks 21st on the program's career blocked shots list (47) and is 15th on the blocks per game list at 0.9/g (47-in-52 games) .
Fieme'a Hafoka (Jr., G, Kihei, Maui) ranks 25th in program history with 49 three-pointers.