Las Vegas, NV—The Runnin’ Rebels played hard for sixty-minutes but at the end of the day they didn’t have answer for Trey Anderson.
Anderson matched his season-high with 19 points, and helped his team sweep the season series from UNLV with a 75-66 win on Valentine’s Day inside the Thomas and Mack Center. Anderson also added five rebounds for the Spartans
The was 16th win of the season it is the most for the Spartans since 2010-11 when the team finished 17-16 overall.
Omari Moore chipped in 14 points while going 4 of 15 from the hardwood, including 3 for 8 from downtown, and 3 for 4 from the charity stripe, and added five assists. Tibet Gorener joined the party shot 4 for 10, including 3 for 8 from beyond the arc to finish with 11 points.
Moore moved up two spots in the San José State career scoring list as he ended the night in ninth place with 1,145 career points. He surpassed Johnnie Skinner (1,131 points) and Terry Cannon (1,139 points) in the second half.
San Jose State shot 51.5% (17 of 33) from the field and 42.9% (6 of 14) on 3-pointers in the first half and led 40-36 going into the locker room. The Spartans finished the game at 48.2% (27 of 56) and 40% (12 of 30) from downtown.
“We had good pockets tonight and battled at times, but obviously not enough. We didn’t sustain it for long enough stretches to come out on top. We made a good push there in the second half but it just wasn’t enough.” UNLV head coach Kevin Kruger said.
The seventh Mountain West win ties the 2016-17 season for the most MW wins in a season since SJSU joined the conference in 2013-14.
San José State outrebounded the Runnin’ Rebels 41-29, with every Spartan who played recording at least two boards during the contest.
Elijah Harkless scored 19 points for the Rebels (16-10, 5-9). UNLV also got 13 points, seven rebounds and three steals from Keshon Gilbert. Also, Justin Webster chipped in 12 points.
The Spartans turned a four-point second-half lead into a 14-point advantage with a 10-0 run to make it a 67-53 lead with 4:50 left in the final frame. Moore scored 14 second-half points in the win. The Rebels cut its deficit to seven with under 2:30 to play, but couldn’t get any closer.
San Jose State was deadly from the perimeter draining 12 3-pointers in the contest.
The Spartans have not won more than seven conference games since 1995-96 when the team went 9-9 in the Big West, won the Big West Tournament and played in the NCAA Tournament.
Ibrahima Diallo led SJSU with eight rebounds and scored eight points including the team’s first six points of the game.
UP NEXT:
The Spartans return to the Provident Credit Union Event Center this Friday night for a MW showdown with New Mexico. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
UNLV will head back out on the road for its next game, playing at Boise State on Sunday, Feb. 19. The 6 P.M. PT game will be televised on FS1.
