SAN JOSE, Calif. – San Jose State men's basketball was unable to carry the momentum from their last-second loss at undefeated San Diego State as the Spartans were held to just 30 percent shooting in a 78-58 loss to the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday at the Provident Credit Union.
The Spartans couldn't get the ball to fall in the opening 20 minutes with scoring droughts of 8:00 and 6:15. They converted just 4-of-22 (18 percent) from the field, however they did take the freebies at the charity strip (10-of-12). Stanford shot a 42 percent clip for the half at 14-of-33. Neither team was very effective from 3-point range at 3-for-22 combined.
The shooting percentage shot up for SJSU (3-8) in the second half, mostly due to the strong play off the bench by Trey Smith (8 points), Caleb Simmons (6 points) and Kaison Hammonds (5 points) in the final minutes. On the other side, the Cardinal hit 15-of-26 and held a double-figure lead for the remainder of the night. Stanford took their biggest lead of 29 points in the final two minutes.
Stanford controlled the paint with 64 percent of their points coming down low while the Spartans scored just 12 of their 58 points in the paint. The Cardinal also won the rebounding battle 48-32.
Seneca Knight led the way for San Jose with 12 points while Brae Ivey finished just behind with 11 points with all three of his field goals coming from 3-point range. Oscar da Silva led Stanford with a game-high 25 points and pulled down eight rebounds. The Cardinal shot 49 percent for the evening as they improved to 9-1 on the season.
With the loss, SJSU gears up for their next nonconference opponent as they head across town to Santa Clara to take on the Broncos on Wednesday.
