The Seattle University men's basketball team was able to finish out a game it led in the second half, holding San Jose State to 30.6 percent field goal shooting and forcing 19 turnovers in defeating the Spartans, 56-48, Thursday night in Western Athletic Conference action at KeyArena at Seattle Center.
Prince Obasi (Reseda, Calif.) scored a career-high 19 points, plus he pulled down five rebounds and dished out four assists. Louis Green (Westchester, Ill.), playing significant minutes after Deshaun Sunderhaus (Conyers, Ga.) turned his ankle in the first half, finished with 13 points, seven rebounds, and four blocked shots, and Jarell Flora (Bremerton, Wash.) also played well off the bench with 11 points, two rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
"It's good to get our first WAC win at home. We did a good job tonight of taking our time at the end. The bench did a good job of defending and rebounding, and Prince has been developing into our rock, as we put the ball in his hands and he either scored himself or found guys in good position to score," Seattle U head coach Cameron Dollar said.
After Obasi scored Seattle U's first five points of the game, San Jose State went on a 10-2 scoring run to take its biggest lead of the game at 12-7 midway through the first half. The Redhawks responded with seven unanswered points to pull ahead, 14-12, but the Spartans stayed close and eventually took the halftime lead at 22-20 on a jumper by Louis Garrett with 52 seconds remaining in the first half.
Chris Cunningham hit five free throws early in the second half, but San Jose State was held without a field goal for the first seven-and-a-half minutes after halftime as Seattle U went on a 13-5 scoring run to pull ahead, 33-27. A three-pointer by Flora and a layup from Obasi extended the Redhawks' lead to 10 at 41-31, and the Spartans could not get closer than seven points down the rest of the way.
Seattle U hit 50 percent of its field goal attempts in the second half to improve its shooting for the game to 38.6 percent (22-of-57), plus the Redhawks committed only four turnovers in the second half. The home team finished with a slight rebounding edge, 40-39, and scored 19 points off Spartan turnovers during the night.
San Jose State (9-12, 3-7 WAC) was led by Cunningham, who notched a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. D.J. Brown scored 10 points, but he was just 2-for-8 from the field, and Garrett contributed eight points, four rebounds, and four steals in 31 minutes for the Spartans. San Jose State once again played without top scorer James Kinney, who has been indefinitely suspended since the Jan. 11 game at Utah State.
Seattle University (7-13, 2-8 WAC) will look to start a winning streak as Utah State arrives for the Homecoming Redout game Saturday, Feb. 2, starting at 7 p.m. The Aggies (15-5, 6-4 WAC) defeated Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, Thursday night, 77-67. Saturday's game will be televised live by ROOT SPORTS, along with the usual live broadcast on 770 AM KTTH The Truth.