San Jose, Calif. – In its regular-season finale, the San José State women's basketball team hosts Fresno State with Mountain West Tournament seeding on the line and senior Andrea Kohlhaas will be honored before the game.
San José State Spartans (5-23, 4-13 MW)
vs.
Fresno State Bulldogs (18-10, 11-6 MW)
Thursday, March 7, 2019 - 7:00 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 FRESNO STATE
The Bulldogs posted a 7-4 mark in non-conference play and have continued that success with an 11-6 conference mark and are locked into the fourth seed in next week's Mountain West Championship. On the road, Fresno State is 7-6, including a 6-2 record in conference road games, and is outscoring its opponents by an average of 0.6 points per contest, 70.9-to-70.3 points per game. Mountain West teams have been slightly less success against the Bulldogs when they are on the road, with the average going up to 4.6 points, 73.5-to-68.9 points per game.
Candice White's 18.2 points per game leads the team. Maddi Utti tops the squad in rebounding (7.3/g) and blocks (1.1/g). Aly Gamez is dishing out 3.0 assists per contest and has been averaging 1.9 steals per outing, both team-highs.
Jamie White is in her 13th season as a Division I head coach and brought a career record of 203-184 in to 2018-19. In five years at Fresno State she is 86-56.
ANDREA KOHLHAAS HONORED ON SENIOR DAY
Playing in her final home game in a Spartans uniform, Andrea Kohlhaas (Sr., F, Besigheim, Germany) will be honored in a ceremony prior to tonight's tip off. The first German national in program history, earned Dean's Scholar honors last year as well as a Mountain West Scholar-Athlete. She has earned three Academic All-Mountain West designations and has been honored with Academic All-America nominations twice. Entering the Fresno State game her .325 three-point shooting percentage ranks eighth on the program's career list and she is tied for 22nd all time in career three-pointers (54).
SEEDINGS FOR THE MOUNTAIN WEST TOURNAMENT ON THE LINE
Entering Thursday's slate of games, San José State is tied with Air Force for ninth place in the MW standings. With a Spartans win, they will secure the ninth seed and would play either San Diego State or Nevada. A Falcon's loss combined with a Spartan's loss still secures the Spartans in the ninth seed. The only scenario in which Air Force will finish ahead of San José State is if they defeat Boise State on Thursday night. That would give them the tiebreaker over the Spartans and would push SJSU down into the 10th seed. If SJSU is seeded ninth, they will play in the 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. If they are seeded tenth they will play in the 4:30 p.m. game.
BENALLY ERUPTS IN VICTORY OVER SDSU
Analyss Benally (Jr., G, Shiprock, N.M.) scored a career-high 31 points in the Spartans 84-76 victory over San Diego State on Saturday. In doing so, she became the 19th player in San José State women's basketball history to score at least 31 points in a game and it was the 34th time a player scored at least 31 points in a game. She sank a single-game high seven three-pointers, which ties her with three other Spartans for The Event Center record. Her previous scoring high was 17 points against Boise State (2/9/19) and she hit five threes in a game twice before, the last time came against New Mexico in the 2017-18 season. The last time a Spartan scored at least 31 points in a game was when Dezz Ramos dropped 37 at Utah State on February 22, 2017.
MARQUEZ & THE MARCH 2 DAY OF DIMES
Danae Marquez (So., PG, Fresno, Calif.) has been red hot getting the ball to her teammates. She is averaging 4.4 assists per game overall, in Mountain West play that number goes up to 4.8/g and in the last four contests her average is up to 9.0/g. Against San Diego State on March 2, she had a career-high 15 assists which was one off the program's single-game and The Event Center record, which was set by Cricket Williams against Tulsa on March 2, 2003.
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 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.
SPARTANS GIVE IT TO SAN DIEGO STATE TO SECURE THIRD WIN IN FOUR GAMES
Junior Analyss Benally (Jr., G, Shiprock, N.M.) exploded for a career-high 31 points, including seven three-pointers, to lead the SJSU to a 84-76 victory over SDSU on Saturday. San José State which has won three of its last four games, had four players in double figures and the team did not shoot under 40 percent in any quarter en route to a 44.4 percent (28-of-63) shooting night. In addition, as a team they equaled a season-best with 14 three-pointers, which was set at Colorado (12/6/18) and matched at Colorado State (2/20/19). For the game SJSU was 14-of-32 from beyond the arc, 45.2 percent, and made 14-of-19 free throws, 73.7 percent.
DIVERSE SCORING OPTIONS
The Spartans have seven players who are averaging between 7.3 and 9.3 points per game and each of the seven has led the team in scoring at least two times this season.
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.
PICK YOUR POISON
Megan Anderson (So., G, Fresno, Calif.) and Analyss Benally (Jr., G, Shiprock, N.M.) have each hit 55 threes this season and are the second most prolific three-point shooting duo in the Mountain West this season. They trail only Riley Lupfer (57 threes) and Braydey Hodgins (60 threes) who combined, have made seven more this season. In the Spartans last five game, in which Anderson and Benally have both started, they have combined for 27 threes and each has set or equaled a single-game career-high...so who ya gonna cover?
FINALLY...SOMEONE IN THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR
It took 13 games, but with its 78-70 victory at Colorado State (2/20), the Spartans climbed out of last place in the league standings. In combination with the team's victories over Air Force (2/23) and SDSU (3/2) combined with a pair of Colorado State losses, San José State has put distance between themselves and the Rams and are now focused on Air Force which, it is tied with in the Mountain West standings. Entering Friday's game the Spartans can not be caught by Colorado State and have the tiebreaker over Air Force.
LOVING THE THIN 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' 17 Mountain West games, all of them starts, Mikaylah Wilson (So., F, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) is averaging 8.0 ppg, has gone 59-of-116 (50.9 percent) from the floor and is pulling down 5.6 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 a career-high seven threes and a single-game scoring high of 31 points against SDSU (3/2), Analyss Benally (Jr., G, Shiprock, N.M.) moved into ninth place on the Spartans career three-pointers list and entering the Fresno State game has made 116 threes in 77 career games (1.6/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 58 games, Benally has made 115 threes, 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 58 games she would set the program's career three-pointers mark passing Kari Steele (1993-97) who currently holds the record with 199.
DANAE HAVING A BREAKOUT SEASON AND AGAINST SDSU...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 24 of the 27 games in which she has appeared this season, but it goes well beyond that. Marquez has upped her scoring from 5.2-to-7.8 points per game as well as increasing her assists from 3.3-to-4.8 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. Against SDSU (3/2) she had a career-high 15 assists, one from the programs record.