LOGAN, Utah – San Jose State men's basketball, presented by Provident Credit Union, was unable to keep up with high-scoring Utah State in the Spartans' 2020-21 Mountain West opener, falling to the Aggies 107-62 on Monday inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
Senior guard Richard Washington continued to be a bright spot for San Jose State (1-3) as he scored 20 points to lead all scorers. It's the third time in four games this season that the MW scoring leader scored at least 20 points and is the 18th double-digit scoring effort of his two-year career.
Additionally, a pair of Spartans came off the bench to score career-highs. Freshman Sebastian Mendoza was the team's second-leading scorer with 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting while sophomore Harminder Dhaliwal made the most of his limited minutes by scoring six points on three perfect attempts.
Unfortunately, not much else went the Spartans way in the loss. Out of the gate, Utah State used a 46.3 percent shooting clip to take a 47-26 lead into the locker room. Justin Bean led the floor with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the opening period. On the other side of the court, it was Washington that led the Spartans with seven points as he knocked down three of SJSU's nine first half field goals. The Spartans committed seven turnovers that led to 11 Aggie points.
After trading a couple buckets to start the night, Utah State jumped out to a big early lead thanks to a 20-4 run that spanned 6:17 of game time. The Aggies hit 10-of-14 attempts in the spree led by Bean's eight points. Sebastian Mendoza ended the run with a 3-pointer with 10:29 on the clock. Utah State then outscored the Spartans 24-18 for the remainder of the period.
Utah State (4-3) came out of the break with an even hotter shooting hand as they scored the first 19 points of the second half. They finished the period with 60 points while shooting 57.1 percent (24-of-42). The gap was too much for San Jose State to chip into as they finished the half with 36 points on 34.1 percent shooting.
Utah State finished the night shooting 51.8 percent (43-of-83) against a 32.9 percent clip for the Spartans (23-of-70). The Aggies hit 11 3-pointers, but did a bulk of their damage down low with 52 points in the paint.
Justin Bean led Utah State with 16 points while Brock Miller chipped in 14 points.
The Spartans will get another crack at the Aggies on Wednesday in the second and final game of the series. Tip is set for 6:00 p.m. PT.
SPARTAN ATHLETICS FUND FAN CUTOUTS:
Spartan Nation, don't miss your chance to be represented in the stands at the Provident Credit Union Event Center this season. If interested in a cardboard cutout, follow this link to register!