San Jose State (5-6, 0-0 MW) didn\u2019t get the result they wanted Saturday night, but the Spartans walked off the Provident Credit Union Event Center floor having pushed a bigger, deeper, power-conference opponent to the brink.<\/p>\n
Stanford\u2019s 86\u201382 win may go down as just another non-conference victory for the Cardinal, but for San Jose State, it was a measuring-stick performance that showed just how narrow the margin can be when effort, belief, and execution align.<\/p>\n
Stanford never trailed, yet the game also never truly escaped the Spartans\u2019 grasp.<\/p>\n
Even while the Cardinal shot a blistering 60.9 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc, San Jose State continued to hang around, leaning on pressure defense, a tough inside game, and just the simple refusal to not fold when early runs could have easily buried the Spartans.<\/p>\n
Stanford drove the theme early and often.<\/p>\n
Stanford opened each half by asserting its size and physicality, jumping out to quick leads behind the shot-making of Jeremy Dent-Smith and Chisom Okpara.<\/p>\n
The Cardinal drilled six first-half threes and shot 63 percent before the break, yet San Jose State\u2019s response was steady rather than frantic.<\/p>\n
Spartan forward Yaphet Moundi battled inside to draw fouls and finish through contact, while Adrian Myers provided a spark off the bench with hustle plays on both ends.<\/p>\n
Despite committing 11 fouls in the first half and briefly losing star guard Colby Garland to early foul trouble, the Spartans closed the opening period with momentum.<\/p>\n
Garland\u2019s late three trimmed the deficit to four before a turnover spoiled a final Spartan possession, sending San Jose State into halftime down 44\u201336.<\/p>\n
Stanford\u2019s efficiency continued after the break, and twice the Cardinal appeared poised to stretch the lead into double digits for good.<\/p>\n
But each time, San Jose State responded.<\/p>\n
Garland also shook off a scare after going down with what looked like a severe injury. Garland immediately returned to re-orchestrate the offense; repeatedly carving his way into the lane.<\/p>\n
Moundi also continued to punish Stanford\u2019s interior; finishing with a game-high 26 points and 10-of-11 shooting from the free-throw line. The court-general Garland also scored 20 with Myers putting in 14.<\/p>\n
A chaotic final two minutes. <\/p>\n
San Jose State rattled off a stunning 12\u20132 run, fueled by back-to-back steals, pressure defense, and relentless attacking.<\/p>\n
Moundi\u2019s three-point play and Garland\u2019s poise brought the Spartans within two in the closing seconds, turning a game Stanford had controlled for nearly 40 minutes into a full-blown thriller.<\/p>\n
Afterward, head coach Tim Miles credited Stanford\u2019s physicality but praised his team\u2019s resolve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey brought the fight to us early,\u201d Miles said. \u201cBut I\u2019ll credit our kids for fighting back and putting themselves in a position to win the game on the last possession.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final play with seconds remaining didn\u2019t materialize as drawn up, Miles admitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe action was designed to get Colby downhill,\u201d said Miles, \u201cIt was a look we had found success with earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Spartans\u2019 last possession resulted in a turnover and no shot on goal for the Spartans, as the Cardinal closed the game with two free-throws.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur kids are fighters,\u201d Miles said. \u201cWe did a lot of really good things to get ourselves right back in that position to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a dynamic Spartan team with leadership, aggressiveness and still big upside potential going into the start of conference play against New Mexico next week.<\/p>\n
All that\u2019s left is to find that recipe and or continued magic to close out games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jose State (5-6, 0-0 MW) didn\u2019t get the result they wanted Saturday night, but the Spartans walked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89,52380],"class_list":["post-95305","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\/95305","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=95305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}