Another Top 25 team was yet again on the right side of a win on Wednesday night as the Utah State Aggies dominated the San Jose State Spartans ( @sanjosestatembb ), 90-70 in the regular season finale inside the Event Center.
The 22nd best team in the country, according to the AP Poll, lived up to that title as four Aggie players racked up 15 or more points. Darius Brown II, was a thorn in the Spartan side all night long, stuffing the stat sheet with 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 9 assists with all his points coming from beyond the arc as he made a career-high 7 three pointers.
Spartan head coach, Tim Miles, addressed the difficulties of defending the prolific Aggie offense, “Osobor and Brown are a great tandem and their complimentary guys are stars in their roles,” Miles stated. “We tried to go with different looks, but it didn’t matter on a night like tonight.” Utah State made a season-high 16 threes collectively, helping them become the Mountain West Regular Season Champions.
As for the Spartans, they finished the regular season on a six game losing streak, however one of the few bright spots going into the Mountain West Conference Tournament is the revitalization of junior guard, Alvaro Cardenas. After feeling under the weather with the flu the past several weeks, he had an all around productive game, having his 4th double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 assists. “I lost a lot of weight, I was weak, and wasn’t myself,” Cardenas explained. “Last game at UNLV I felt like myself again and today same thing.” The Spaniard playmaker will be crucial to the Spartans success on and off the court as he’s recognized as the team’s “leader”.
Coach Miles is more than ready to move on from the up and down regular season he explains, “This chapter is gone and we put it in the horror story section.” With the Mountain West Tournament rapidly approaching, Miles understands that it will be difficult to win a game again in Las Vegas, but he believes it’s “new life” on a neutral court.
San Jose State will play the Colorado State Rams in the first round of the Mountain West Conference Tournament in a single-elimination format on March 13.
It is terrible that SJSU Men’s Basketball had difficulties defending the other team. I hope they do better next season.