Hard as they tried the San Jose State Spartans just couldn’t finish the job against the Abilene Christian Wildcats at the University of the Virgin Islands on Fri Nov 17, 2023 (photo by the San Jose State Spartans)

Friday, November 17th, 2023

By Troy Ewers

In the beautiful University of the Virgin Islands, the San Jose State Spartans avoid a rainy Bay Area on the beach competing in this Paradise Jam tournament against Abilene Christian. San Jose State this game needed to focus on three things if they were going to win and that’s ball control, hitting 3’s, and being quick, but not rushing.  They fell short to Abilene in a 77-71.

First half for the Spartans was them hitting on those key points. The flow of scoring came from a lot of shots being put on the board and the Spartans hit 56% from the field. The battle between the two point guards was a huge factor.

Alvaro Cardenas with seven points at half and three assists was able to direct traffic and MJ Amey Jr. with 12 points and four assists was able to create a gap in the score in a half that felt like it was within two points all half. 

The second half was the polar opposite of the first with SJSU only scoring 30 points in the second half. ACU closed the gap early on the half and with ten minutes left in the game even though San Jose State was able to tie it up, ACU got the lead right back with great post play.

San Jose State lost their flow in the second half especially with turnovers. The Spartans had seven turnovers, four of them in the second half, and ACU used it as an opening to take over the game. With 3:30 left in the Tibet Gorener hit a three that gave SJSU momentum in a back and forth final stretch and a two point lead.

The key stretch of this game was was the final 30 seconds, down two points, Gorener missed a three point shot (he was 3-9 from three this game) and after the review it was ruled a shot clock violation, because it didn’t hit the rim and that forced the Spartans to have to foul to save time, but the strategy was ineffective and ACU made each free throw ending the game with a score of 77-71 Albilene Christian wins in this game of the Paradise Jam tournament. 

Bad news, the Spartans lost a game they should’ve won, but let go. Good news is the team is by a beach, so it shouldn’t be hard to forget about this loss before the next game. That next game is in the Consolation bracket of this tournament November 18th against an unknown opponent at this moment, but the San Jose State Spartans have to figure out a way to close games when they can be so dominant in the first half.