Photo credit: sjsuspartans.com

By: Ana Kieu

San Jose State will look to stay hot and keep the momentum rolling this week as they take on road games vs. Pac-12 foes Stanford and Cal. First up is the Cardinal on Tuesday, Dec. 18, at 7:00 pm. Justin Allegri will have the radio call on KLIV 1590 AM, while Roxy Bernstein and Don MacLean will have the call on the Pac-12 Network.

Game #10
San José State (3-6) at Stanford (5-4)
Tuesday, Dec. 18, 7:00 pm PT
Maples Pavilion (7,233)
Stanford, Calif.

Live stats
Fans can view live stats of all SJSU men’s basketball games, home and away, by accessing the Live Stats feature at www.sjsuspartans.com. Click on the link on the men’s basketball schedule page to follow the action.

Two in a row
With a win over Northern Arizona, SJSU is on a 2-game win streak for the first time since winning the first three games of the 2017-18 season. It is the first win streak over D1 opponents since winning four straight in MW play during the 2016-17 season.

Down, but not out
SJSU picked up win No. 3 of the year against Northern Arizona, but it didn’t come easy. SJSU had to erase a 10-point halftime deficit and took their first lead of the game with 10 minutes left. From there, SJSU held on as the teams went back and forth for the remainder of the contest. SJSU outshot NAU 40.4% to 37.9%.

Noah Baumann and Oumar Barry led the charge in the comeback. Baumann finished with a career-high 23 points, including 18 in the second half, and was 5-of-6 from 3-point range. Barry recorded his first double-double as a Spartan with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Steady Steadman
JUCO transfer Michael Steadman has made a big impact this season as a leader on and off the court. The 6’10” forward is averaging a team-high 13.1 points per game and ranks fourth in the MW with 9.2 rebounds per game. He also ranks in the top 40 nationally in the rebounding department. Steadman has three double-doubles on the season, ranking fourth in the conference and has scored in double figures in 8-of-9 games, including six straight.

Staff shakeup
Jean Prioleau made some changes to his staff in the offseason as he brought in former NC State All-American Julius Hodge as an assistant coach and promoted director of operations Ryan Cooper to assistant coach.

Familiar foe
Tuesday’s matchup will be 52nd installment in the Stanford-SJSU series, but the first meeting since 2006. The Cardinal leads the all-time series 38-13 and is 28-4 in games played in Stanford. The Spartans’ last win in the series came on Dec. 3, 1992 in San Jose.

The Cardinal, led by third year coach Jerod Haase, enters Tuesday’s game with a 5-4 record. Three of their four losses have come at the hands of ranked teams, including a 90-84 loss in overtime to No. 2 Kansas in Lawrence on Dec. 1. KZ Okpala leads the team at 15.9 ppg and 6.0 rpg.

Big game Baumann
Sophomore Noah Baumann is once again displaying his impressive 3-point shooting ability this season after finishing in the top-40 in the MW in 3 point percentage as a freshman. He is currently 20-for-34 from 3-point range (.588).

Baumann has come up huge for the Spartans in their last two games. In their win over Bethune-Cookman, after the team went 0-10 from 3-point range in the opening half, Baumann drained 3-of-5 attempts in the second half and finished with a then-season-high 12 points to help lead SJSU to victory.

Baumann followed up with his best performance as a Spartan in the win over NAU. He scored a career-high 23 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including 18 in the second half to lead the Spartans to victory. He finished 5-of-6 from 3-point range and made four free throws in the final 37 seconds to close out the game.

Oumar plays his best basketball 
Senior center Oumar Barry is playing his best basketball as a Spartan as of late. Against Bethune-Cookman, he finished with a then-career-high 13 points and seven rebounds. He followed that up with his most dominating performance at SJSU as he recorded his first career double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds for his first-career game with double digit rebounds. Barry also blocked two shots and was 7-of-10 at the free throw line to help the Spartans to a win.

Barry entered the Bethune-Cookman game averaging just 5.7 points per game, but after averaging 15 points in the last two outings, he has increased his production to 7.8 ppg.

Bay Area road trip
The Spartans’ stop in Stanford is the first of three-straight road games against in-state foes. SJSU will make a quick turnaround to face Cal in Berkeley on Friday, Dec. 21, and will bookend their non-conference slate on Dec. 29 against Saint Mary’s in Moraga.