San Jose State finds right medicine at UI

MOSCOW, Idaho – Two teams that have struggled to score and win basketball games did exactly what one would expect Saturday:

They struggled to score and the winning team made just 5 of 12 free throws in the final 47 seconds to keep it interesting.

The Idaho Vandals couldn’t take advantage, though, and grudgingly slid into the Western Athletic Conference cellar alone, undone by a familiar list of errant shooting, rebounding woes and a general lack of clutch plays.

Idaho fell 57-53 to San Jose State, which snapped a 21-game conference road losing streak dating back to Feb. 15, 2003, in front of 1,375 at the Cowan Spectrum.

“When you’re struggling as both our teams have, it just gets even harder to win,” first-year Spartans coach George Nessman said. “Your confidence isn’t what it should be. I’m pretty confident Leonard (Perry, Idaho coach) is fighting the same thing. It’s hard to have your guys confident in a tight game when they haven’t succeeded that often. Confidence comes from success and repetition.”

The Vandals, who had a week to prepare for the Spartans, have been held to 61 points or less in their last six games, all losses. Idaho (3-12 overall) is 0-5 in the WAC, the only winless team in conference. San Jose State (5-12, 1-3) snapped a seven-game slide.

Idaho trailed nearly the whole way, but never by double digits. San Jose State’s lead usually fluctuated between three and eight points, but that seemed fairly safe considering Idaho’s largest scoring run was 5-0.

Still, Idaho was down just 50-47 with 4:44 remaining after Keoni Watson’s three-point play. The 5-foot-10 guard became Idaho’s main offensive weapon in the late stages, despite aggravating a bruised tailbone he suffered last week at Nevada.

At that point, however, both teams screeched to a halt. San Jose State missed four shots and committed a turnover. Idaho missed three shots, including one open and one hurried 3-pointer by Tanoris Shepard, and committed an offensive foul and a turnover.

SJSU’s Demetrius Brown ended a dry spell of 3:30 with a pair of free throws. Shepard missed two free throws that could have narrowed the deficit to one with 21.3 seconds left.

Brown made 1 of 2 free throws to give San Jose State a 56-53 lead and Idaho had one final chance with 7 seconds remaining. Perry diagrammed a play but there were few options, considering Idaho was 2 of 19 on 3-pointers.

Brett Ledbetter (0 for 5) was the first option and Aaron Smith (0 for 3) was the second. When Idaho had trouble inbounding the ball, it was forced to go to its third option, Igor Vrzina, in the corner. Vrzina, who had attempted only seven 3-pointers all season, came up a foot short of touching the rim.

“We got the thing down to a one-possession game,” Perry said. “They had some guys step up and we had some opportunities and we didn’t get it done.”

Idaho shot just 34 percent and missed an inordinate number of open shots from close range. Watson and freshman David Dubois, who fouled out with 2:25 remaining, each had 17 points. They combined to make 13 of 19 shots. Their teammates were a combined 5 of 34.

“We just struggle making shots,” Watson said. “We miss layups from time to time, just little things that we should be making we’re having problems with right now.”

San Jose State shot roughly the same (36 percent) but had greater margin for error after gathering 12 offensive rebounds.

Idaho visits North Dakota State on Tuesday. The Bison upset No. 15 Wisconsin on Saturday.

San Jose St. 57, Idaho 53

San Jose St. (5-12, 1-3) – Gardner 4-7 2-4 11, Elam 6-11 1-4 16, Spencer 1-6 3-4 5, D.Brown 4-11 7-13 16, Barbary 0-0 0-0 0, Richardson 1-3 0-0 3, Cozad 2-3 0-0 4, Thomas 0-2 0-0 0, J.Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Fleming 0-1 0-0 0, Holloway 0-0 0-0 0, Misko 0-6 2-2 2. Totals 18-50 15-27 57.

Idaho (3-12, 0-5) – Watson 5-8 7-7 17, Shepard 4-16 2-4 12, Ledbetter 0-5 0-0 0, Dubois 8-11 1-3 17, Nwoke 1-3 0-0 2, Forge 0-2 0-0 0, Jakovljevic 0-0 2-2 2, Smith 0-3 0-0 0, Vrzina 0-3 0-0 0, Kale 0-2 3-4 3. Totals 18-53 15-20 53.

Halftime–San Jose State 22-18. 3-Point Goals–San Jose St. 6-19 (Elam 3-8, D.Brown 1-2, Richardson 1-3, Gardner 1-4, Fleming 0-1, Spencer 0-1), Idaho 2-20 (Shepard 2-8, Dubois 0-1, Forge 0-1, Vrzina 0-2, Smith 0-3, Ledbetter 0-5). Fouled Out–Dubois, Kale, Nwoke. Rebounds–San Jose St. 43 (D.Brown 10), Idaho 33 (Nwoke 9). Assists–San Jose St. 8 (Spencer 6), Idaho 7 (Watson 3). Total Fouls–San Jose St. 20, Idaho 23. A–1,375.