San Jose State (5-7, 0-1 MW) entered The Pit on Saturday night fully aware of the challenge ahead.<\/p>\n
New Mexico (10-2, 1-0 MW) hadn\u2019t lost at home all season, as New Mexico easily pulled away in the second-half for an 88\u201365 win over the Spartans in the conference opener.<\/p>\n
For brief stretches, San Jose State showed it could compete, but sustaining that high-level output, however, proved elusive for Tim Miles\u2019 crew.<\/p>\n
The Spartans relied on early perimeter shooting to stay connected in the opening half.<\/p>\n
Jermaine Washington, JaVaughn Hannah, and Colby Garland all knocked down threes to counter New Mexico\u2019s physical interior play, helping SJSU absorb the initial surge.<\/p>\n
Garland, in particular, kept the Spartans afloat, scoring 12 of his game-high 27 points before halftime; providing nearly all of the Spartans\u2019 offensive stability.<\/p>\n
But mistakes mounted quickly. San Jose committed nine first-half turnovers, several unforced, stalling possessions before they could develop.<\/p>\n
New Mexico capitalized with efficient execution, shooting 56 percent from the floor while steadily getting to the free-throw line. Despite SJSU hitting six first-half threes, the Lobos methodically built a 41\u201328 lead at the break.<\/p>\n
The second half opened with a glimpse of hope for the Spartans. <\/p>\n
An 11\u20133 run sparked by Melvin Bell Jr. in transition, Garland\u2019s third three of the night, and a strong Yaphet Moundi drive cut the deficit to five and briefly shifted the tone. It was the kind of response San Jose State needed: aggressive, composed, and connected.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, New Mexico responded immediately.<\/p>\n
Coming out of the timeout, the Lobos drilled back-to-back threes and reasserted control.<\/p>\n
Each Spartan push was met with an answer, and the margin slowly widened as San Jose\u2019s offense stalled. Empty possessions became frequent, ball movement stagnated, and the Lobos\u2019 dominance grew with every trip.<\/p>\n
The decisive stretch came midway through the half, when San Jose State endured a prolonged scoring drought of nearly five minutes. During that span, New Mexico ripped off a 9\u20130 run, ballooning the lead past 20 and effectively ending the contest early.<\/p>\n
The Lobos coasted; stretching the margin to as many as 31 points late.<\/p>\n
Garland finished with 27 points on an efficient 9-of-17 shooting night, accounting for more than 40 percent of San Jose State\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n
Bell and Pasha Goodarzi reached double figures with 12 and 11 points, but the Spartans struggled to find consistent secondary scoring throughout when SJS really needed it.<\/p>\n
As a team, SJSU shot just 38 percent from the field, compared to New Mexico\u2019s 57 percent – a disparity that told the story more clearly than any single stretch.<\/p>\n
For New Mexico, the win marked its 19th straight victory at The Pit and extended its home record to 8\u20130.<\/p>\n
For San Jose State, it was a familiar Mountain West lesson: competitiveness alone isn\u2019t enough on the road without sustained execution.<\/p>\n
The Spartans now get a much-needed 10-day break to regroup and rethink before facing San Diego State on December 30th at home.<\/p>\n
How San Jose State responds, particularly in generating offense beyond Garland, will go a long way in shaping conference play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jose State (5-7, 0-1 MW) entered The Pit on Saturday night fully aware of the challenge ahead.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89,52380],"class_list":["post-103639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-state-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}