San Jose State 62, Weber State 46
San Jose, Calif.-(SJSU Media Relations)San Jose State’s best defensive effort of the season clearly compensated for a season-low 9 points by foul-plagued guard Adrian Oliver as the Spartans defeated Weber State, 62-46, in a non-conference men’s basketball game.
The Spartans (13-12) won their second game in a row and ended Weber State’s six-game winning streak.
The Wildcats (15-10) shot just 34.7 percent from the field and made only 4-of-21 attempts from three-point range. During Weber State’s winning streak, the Wildcats made 50.9 percent (59-of-116) of their three-point field goal tries. Guard Scott Bamforth, the national leader in 3-points field goal accuracy at 54.5 percent was 0-of-2, and scored all five of his points at the free throw line.
“Defensively, we had a lot of energy and that was important,” said San Jose State coach George Nessman. “Weber is a great shooting team and they didn’t shoot the ball well to start the game and that really helped us in terms of building our confidence. Weber is one of the top-five three-point shooting teams in the nation and we were alert to that. We did a great job of closing out on defense and taking that big weapon away as much as we could."
“We didn’t have it tonight, for whatever reason,” said Weber State head coach Randy Rahe. “I thought San Jose State played really well. I thought they had a lot of energy. They looked like a much fresher team than we did."
San Jose State guard Keith Shamburger led all players with a game-high 21 points – the fourth time this season he scored 20 or more points. Justin Graham ended a two-game shooting slump in which he made just 7-of-29 field goal tries, converting 6-of-9 from the field and finished with 14 points. Graham scored 12 in the first half and more than compensated offensively for Oliver’s absence due to fouls.
“I thought (Justin Graham) really set the tone for them in the first half. Shamburger got himself into a little bit of a zone in the second half. We were guarding him and he still was making shots,” added the Wildcats’ coach.
Oliver came into the game as the nation’s second-leading scorer at 24.5 a game. He played just 20 minutes as he picked up his second foul at the 10:58 mark of the first half. The Spartans, who led the entire game, built a two-point lead when Oliver left the game for the first time into a 13-point advantage the next six minutes and led 30-22 at halftime.
Weber State never cut the deficit to single digits after the first two minutes of the second half.
Wil Carter added 16 points and matched his season-high of 14 rebounds as San Jose State out-rebounded Weber State, 34-25.
Forward Kyle Bullinger and center Trevor Morris were the only Wildcats in double-figure scoring with 10 points each.
San Jose State continues its six-game homestand, Wednesday, February 23, hosting New Mexico State in a Western Athletic Conference game on ESPN2 at 8:00 p.m. (PS).