San Jose State continues homestand with conference matchup vs. Colorado State Wednesday night

Photo credit: @SJSUMBB

By: Ana Kieu

Once again, San Jose State men’s basketball has nothing to play for but pride, but I still have to provide some of the best Spartan coverage out there, so there you go. The Spartans wrap up their two-game homestand with a conference matchup versus the Colorado State Rams inside the Event Center Wednesday night. The tipoff has been set for 7:00 pm PT.

SJSU (3-21, 0-12) most recently hosted UNLV (14-11, 8-5 MW) and dropped a 71-64 decision following a promising first half with the Spartans holding onto a mere three-point advantage, 31-28, to the locker room on Saturday, February 16th. Meanwhile, CSU (9-16, 4-8 MW) lost to the San Diego State Aztecs 71-60 at the Moby Arena on Tuesday, February 12th. As you can see, home court advantage failed to help out the Rams, but then again, they faced a challenging SDSU team who currently holds a 16-9, 8-4 MW record.

The Spartans are bottom-feeders as they’ve lost 15 games in a row, while the Rams have dropped three consecutive games. That’s a tough pill for the Spartans to swallow, but hey, it’s NCAA basketball and anything could happen so don’t rule anything out Spartan Nation!

After all, SJSU did play a pretty darn good game versus UNLV last Saturday. Michael Steadman, as you should already know, was being “Steady Steadman” as one of the three Spartans in double-figure scoring with a team-high 16 points and seven rebounds. Moreover, Zach Chappell had his most complete game of the 2018-19 Spartans season with 11 points and season-highs of nine assists AND six rebounds in 29 minutes of play.

The Spartans failed to secure the upset over the Rebels, but there were quite a few silver linings like the two players I just mentioned as well as the reduced turnovers and increased rebounding. Since the Rams are third to last in the conference, I believe that the Spartans can beat them by 10 points or fewer. That being said, my prediction will be a Spartans 70-65 win.

Sharks Beat Canucks 3-2, Erik Karlsson Returns

Photo credit: @SanJoseSharks

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Sharks defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 Saturday. The win matches Calgary’s Saturday win to keep the Sharks tied in points with the Western Conference leaders to the North. Sharks goals came from Timo Meier, Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski, who happened to be playing on the same line. Martin Jones made 32 saves for the win. Vancouver got goals from Antoine Roussel and Brock Boeser, while Jacob Markstrom made 23 saves in the loss. Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson made his return from injury with an assist and 24:44 time on ice.

Timo Meier put the first goal on the board at 3:45 of the first on a power play. The second power play unit of Meier, Evander Kane, Joe Thornton, Erik Karlsson and Marc-Edouard Vlasic moved the puck well all around the offensive zone for some time before Karlsson found Meier in front of the net. Assists went to Karlsson and Evander Kane.

Antoine Roussel tied it up for Vancouver 57 seconds later, when the Sharks lost track of him in the neutral zone and Alex Biega found him with a good pass. He broke away ahead of the Sharks defense and beat Martin Jones before anyone could catch up with him.

At the end of the first period, the Sharks had scored on one of two power plays, while Vancouver had not scored on either of their power play chances. The shot count was 11-8 for the Sharks and the Sharks had won 52% of the faceoffs.

The score remained 1-1 until Logan Couture scored for the Sharks 11:08 into the second period. the play developed after Erik Karlsson broke up a Canucks rush across the Sharks blue line. After breaking up the pass, he sent the puck the other way for Burns to move it through the neutral zone. He sent it to Pavelski, who got it across the blue line line and handed it off to Couture. Couture carried it to the net, waited for his shot and took it.

That goal was followed up by a fight between Barclay Goodrow and MacEwen at 11:10.

The Canucks out shot the Sharks in the second period 18-6. The Sharks killed almost two penalties, the second being cut short by a high sticking penalty to Vancouver. That 90-second power play for San Jose was the only penalty Vancouver had to kill in the second period. The Sharks faceoff win percentage improved to 58% by the end of the second.

The Canucks tied it up again at 4:31 of the third. Brock Boeser bought the puck out from behind the Sharks net and paused as if to make a pass. This lured Martin Jones into moving forward and away from his post. As no one prevented it, Boeser put the puck between Jones and the post. Assists went to Elias Pettersson and Derrick Pouliot.

The Sharks took the lead back with a goal from Joe Pavelski at 13:06. Timo Meier took a shot as he moved across in front of the net but Markstrom kicked that back out. Pavelski was in Meier’s wake and that rebound came right to him for the shot. Assists went to Meier and Logan Couture.

The Canucks pulled Markstrom for the extra skater with just under two minutes left in regulation. Final score, 3-2 Sharks. The Sharks won the faceoff battle 61% of the time, with Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl responsible for most of those.

Marcus Sorensen had to leave the ice for a spell after taking a stick to the face in the final five minutes of the second period. He returned to play for the start of the third period.

The Sharks next play on Monday in San Jose against the visiting Boston Bruins at 7:00 PM PT.

Baumann becomes record-setter, but San Jose State falls to UNLV 71-64 for 15th loss in a row

Photo credit: @SJSUMBB

By: Ana Kieu

SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose State men’s basketball has nothing left to play for except for pride and Saturday’s matinee versus the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels was a rather competitive Mountain West matchup inside the Event Center. SJSU had lost 14 in a row, while UNLV searched for its second straight win on the road.

The Spartans’ starting five consisted of the favorable likes of Noah Baumann, Seneca Knight, Ashtin Chastain, Michael Steadman and Zach Chappell. SJSU hosted Fight for Literary day, which encouraged fans to pledge and possibly donate for the literary of local schoolchildren in the South Bay.

The Rebels jumped out to a fast start as Cheikh Mbacke Diong made a layup and Joel Ntambwe hit a 3-pointer to make it a 5-0 game, but the Spartans got on the board, thanks to Baumann’s layup in the paint and jumper to make it a 1-point game. Knight’s layup gave the Spartans a 1-point lead 6-5 at the 16:54 mark of the first half.

The game turned into a back-and-forth affair between these two teams. UNLV entered the driver’s seat, but SJSU gave the road team a hard time on Walt McPherson court. Steadman made two jumpers–one regular and the other in the paint–and Chappell knocked down a jumper to put the Spartans ahead 22-18 with 7:38 left in the first.

The Spartans continued to pour in the points. Steadman added a jumper in the paint, while Knight came alive with a layup, jumper and lone free throw. Also, Christian Anigwe threw down a dunk with 10 seconds left on the clock to help the Spartans to a 31-28 lead to close out the first.

Baumann opened up the second half in one of the most exciting ways possible. Baumann hit a 3 to not only extend the Spartans’ lead to 34-28, but also to set a new school record with a 3 in 22 consecutive games. The Spartans followed up with Knight’s 3, Steadman’s jumper in the paint and Chappell’s layup. The latter allowed the Spartans to regain the lead 41-39 at the 16-minute mark of the half.

The Rebels regained the lead 46-41 at the 12:07 mark of the half. Mbacke Diong made a pair of layups along with a lone free throw plus a jumper. However, Steadman ended the Rebels’ 7-0 run with a jumper at the 11:27 mark of the half. Steadman then made a layup on the fastbreak to make it a 1-point game.

The Spartans attracted attention to themselves as Ivey hit a 3 on the fastbreak and then drew a questionable penalty for fouling, which was arguably uncalled for by the officials. Still, SJSU regained the lead 48-46, so there wasn’t much to complain about. Well, at least until the Rebels tied the game 46-46 on a pair of free throws by Noah Robotham and snatched a 1-point lead 49-48 on Kris Clyburn’s lone free throw on the fastbreak.

Fast forward to the final minutes (and seconds) of the game where the Spartans pulled within five, thanks to Anigwe’s pair of free throws with 53 seconds left on the clock. Ivey made a pair of free throws in response to Amauri Hardy’s pair of free throws, but Robothom heated things up by making three straight free throws on the fastbreak in a 12-second span. Sure, Anigwe made a free throw on the fastbreak, but that wasn’t enough as San Jose State dropped its 15th in a row by a final score of 71-64.

SJSU hosts the Colorado State Rams on Wednesday, February 20th at 7:00 pm PT.

Gulls dominate Barracuda in 8-3 win

Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Diego Gulls took advantage of a change of momentum late in the first period and never looked back as they trounced the San Jose Barracuda 8-3 on Saturday afternoon at SAP Center.

San Diego is currently 5-1 against San Jose this season. The win also gave the Gulls 60 points as they moved into a tie for second place with the Cuda in the Pacific Division.

San Diego (27-15-3-3) drew first blood on a five-on-three power play late in the first period. With both Jacob Middleton and Jon Martin both off for hooking, Ben Street sent a cross ice pass over to Sam Carrick, whose one-timer beat Cuda goalie Antoine Bibeau (11-7-5) for his 23rd goal of the season at the 17:32 mark. Trevor Murphy received the secondary assist.

San Diego doubled their lead just seconds after their second power play ended. Carrick sent a shot on net that deflected off Chase De Leo for his 16th goal of the season at the 19:20 mark. Keifer Sherwood received the secondary assist.

Despite controlling the majority of the play in the opening frame and out shooting San Diego 16-10, San Jose (27-12-2-4) limped in to the first intermission down by two goals.

Gulls goalie Jeff Glass (8-6-2) was busy in the first period making key saves including one from point-blank range that kept the Cuda off the scoreboard.

San Diego kept their momentum going to start the second period. Ben Thompson fed a pass over to Murphy who skated across the slot past John McCarthy and Middleton and snapped a wrist shot past Bibeau for his eight goal of the season at the 3:17 mark.

Sam Steel picked up a loose puck along the boards and skated in and beat Bibeau through the five-hole for a 4-0 lead. The rookie forward’s goal was his 13th of the season at the 9:03 mark. Thomson and

San Jose finally got on the scoreboard just over a minute later. Alex True punched in a rebound off a Martin shot for his co-team leading 15th goal of the season at the 10:15 mark. Kyle Wood was credited with the secondary assist.

Carrick scored his second goal of the contest and 24th of the season on the power play when he took off on a breakaway and split two Cuda defenders to wrist one past Bibeau at the 11:05 mark.

Steel scored his second goal and 14th goal of the season on a two-on-one odd man rush with Korbinian Holzer. Steel skated in and blasted a shot that rung off the post into the back of the net for a 6-1 lead at the 15:24 mark. Kevin Roy was credited with the secondary assist.

San Diego dominated the third period. Corey Tropp scored when he was able to bang in his own rebound past Josef Korenar, who replaced Bibeau to start the third period, for his 16th goal of the season at the 12:29 mark. Jack Kopacka and Kalle Kossila received assists.

The Gulls continued their success on the power play. Roy sent a pass over to Alex Dostie and he wristed a shot into the back of the net for his second goal of the season at the 13:16 mark.

Rourke Chartier scored a goal on the power play in garbage time. Francis Perron sent a pass over to Chartier, who buried it past Glass for his fifth goal of the season at the 14:38 mark.

Keaton Middleton sent a shot from the blue line that sneaked past Glass over his right shoulder into the back of the net. The unassisted goal was Middleton’s sixth goal of the season at the 16:58 mark.

Glass was huge between the pipes for San Diego stopping 40 of the 43 shots he faced to earn his eight victory. Bibeau, who made his third consecutive start, made 14 saves on 20 after 40 minutes shots in suffering the defeat. Korenar made nine saves on 11 shots in mop up duty.

GAME NOTES: San Jose was 1/7 on the power play. San Diego was 3/6.

Vincent Praplan was back in the line up after missing the past 12 games with an injury.

TJ Hensick made his debut with the Barracuda. The veteran of 630 AHL games was signed back on February 12th.

The announced attendance was 2,859.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda take on the Gulls on Monday 2/18 at 1:15 pm at SAP Center.

San Jose State returns home to host UNLV in Saturday matinee

Photo credit: @SJSUMBB

By: Ana Kieu

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The 2018-19 San Jose State men’s basketball season has been a lost cause for quite a while now, so the team has been playing for pride because they have nothing to play for until the end of the season against the rival Fresno State Bulldogs at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif. on March 9th. But, until then, San Jose State has to endure seven more games and possibly seven straight losses as much as I don’t want to say the latter.

SJSU last played against the New Mexico Lobos at the Pit in Albuquerque, N.M. Wednesday and got ran over by a final score of 92-60. SJSU (3-20, 0-11 MW) lost its 14th consecutive game, while UNM (11-13, 5-7 MW) rebounded following a 91-62 blowout by the hands of the No. 7 Nevada Wolf Pack on February 9th. Moreover, UNM took out their anger on SJSU and that was an understatement as they pretty much had the conference game from start to finish. SJSU, however, put on a strong offensive show to open the first half, so let’s give them credit where it’s due, okay?

Anyways, I’m not ruling out the fact that SJSU can somehow pull off an upset over UNLV, but there’s a sad reality that all of us must realize and that’s how the Spartans struggle to close out the games as they tend to suffer second half scoring woes for some reason or more than a few reasons if you’re a glass half empty type of person…or a full blown troll who has too much time on his or her hands.

But I can confirm that Noah Baumann is like a boss as his most recent performance allowed him to lead the Spartans with 10 points. Not only that, Baumann hit two 3-pointers and extended his consecutive games with a 3-pointer streak to 21 games to tie SJSU’s record set in the 2009-10 season by Robert Owens. I’d also like to add that Ashtin Chastain has been having himself a game after what seemed like a long scoring drought that partially occurred due to injuries in the past year or so. Chastain recorded a team-high 11 rebounds along with seven points in the Spartans’ loss to the Lobos in Albuquerque. It was just that Lobos won the rebound battle 44-39 as the Spartans actually finished with just 11 turnovers. The Lobos were simply the better team as a whole and they weren’t anywhere near the likes of Nevada, Utah State, Fresno State, San Diego and UNLV.

SJSU will likely get blown out by UNLV. My prediction stands at 95-55, but hey, anything can happen, so let’s see if the basketball Gods will work wonders or not.

In case you missed it, SJSU had a productive Friday morning. The Spartans read out loud to the elementary school students at Horace Mann Elementary in San Jose. Moreover, Caleb Simmons, a 6-foot-6, 195 pounds guard from Desert Vista High in Phoenix, Ariz., talked to the students about positivity, perseverance, and prosperity. It’s good that Simmons did that and I hope those young kids learned a thing or two because today’s kids are supposed to be the future in the advancement of this country.

If you want to pledge to support Fight for Literacy before tomorrow night’s game, click on the “Pledge Here” link to the embedded tweet below. It’s a notable cause that will do good for the local students in the South Bay.

Join us and Fight for Literacy at tomorrow night's game! Info is below. Join together! #fight4literacy | #SpartanUp@sanjoselibrary@RPsiliconvalley@coachingforlit
Pledge here: https://t.co/jvbTvLJZNH pic.twitter.com/sJ4ml7CvZi

— San Jose State Men’s Basketball (@SanJoseStateMBB) February 15, 2019

Barracuda beat Roadrunners 2-1 in a shootout

Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By: Ana Kieu

The San Jose Barracuda had hoped to snap a three-game skid and they did indeed do that Wednesday evening at the SAP Center with a 2-1 win over the Tuscon Roadrunners in a shootout.

The Barracuda (27-11-2-4) went with a starting lineup that featured the likes of Antti Suomela, Rourke Chartier, Francis Perron, Jake Middleton, Nick DeSimone and Antoine Bibeau. Meanwhile, the Roadrunners (24-15-4-2) decided on a starting lineup that showcased Giovanni Fiore, Emil Petersson, Jeremy Gregoire, Dakota Mermis, Jordan Gross and Adin Hill.

Only one thing was on the Barracuda’s mind tonight and that was to get back in the win column against a Pacific Division rival. Well, at least from the average fan’s perspective, anyways.

This was a low-scoring game, but the Barracuda was able to secure a win in the shootout. There was a decent amount of penalties, and of course, the scrums that occurred as a result. Anyways, the score was in a scoreless deadlock after the first period. San Jose held a 6-4 advantage in shots over Tucson at the end of 20 minutes. The deadlock remained in tact after the second period. The only difference was that San Jose led Tuscon in shots 28-13 at the end of 40 minutes.

The third period, however, was a back-and-forth affair. Sure, San Jose might’ve wished they had snatched the first lead (and goal) of the evening, but they managed to tie the score 1-1 and that was pretty much all that mattered. Tuscon finally got on the board when Gregoire scored his seventh goal of the season at the 18:41 mark of the third. Assists were handed to Pettersson and Robbie Russo. Just 1:04 later, San Jose got even with DeSimone’s ninth goal of the season, which was a power-play goal. Assists were credited by Suomela and Kyle Wood. DeSimone’s power-play goal happened following a Russo slashing penalty.

The score remained in a 1-1 deadlock after both teams played the mandatory three periods. San Jose led Tuscon in shots 35-23 at the end of the full 60 minutes.

As a result, it went into overtime, but neither team scored the go-ahead goal to pick up a win, so the final result was determined by a shootout. In the first round, neither Pettersson nor Chartier scored. In the second round, Lane Pederson was unable to score, but Alexander True managed to score. In the third round, Jordan Gross got the game-tying score, but the Barracuda broke through when Perron notched the game-tying score to lift his team to a 2-1 victory over Tuscon.

Bibeau earned the Barracuda victory by making 23 saves on 24 shots. Hill made 39 saves on 40 shots in a losing effort for the Roadrunners.

The Barracuda’s three stars of the game were Perron, DeSimone and Gregoire.

The Barracuda continue their homestand with the first of two home-and-home games against the rival San Diego Gulls (26-15-2-3) on Saturday afternoon at 1:05 pm PT.

San Jose State football talks NLI signing period Wednesday

Photo credit: sjsuspartans.com

By: Ana Kieu

SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose State football released its 2019 schedule on Monday, but Wednesday was all eyes on head coach Brent Brennan and one member (Alex Galland) of this year’s recruiting class inside the Simpkins Stadium Center. All two took questions from the local media on the first day of the traditional start to the National Letter of Intent signing period.

If you’re a San Jose State football fan, then this update was written with you in mind. Here’s my question and answer session with Brennan and company.

1. Better health is an obvious priority for the current roster. Talk about a few other solutions to continue turning potential into production.
I think Josh Love demonstrated when he’s healthy, he can be a really effective quarterback. So, in terms of our offensive production, it’s important that Love has the playmakers surrounding him, but that’s more so easier said than done because we play against a lot of teams with more improved defensive and offensive lines.

2. The Spartans trailed in Rushing S&P+ and Opportunity Rate, but Tyler Nevens is a different figure as he has been leading the backfield and showing a good amount of ability to be a grinder. Do you feel like the Spartan running game has nowhere to go but up?
Absolutely, and obviously, Quinn (Oseland), (Scott) Breslin and Jelani (Newman) will be guys that we hope will give us a boost. When it comes to the offensive line, we have guys who know that it all starts with them. So I’m hopeful and that was one of the reasons why we identified Quinn and we’re excited that he has seen the felt the love from California and saw the opportunities in the Silicon Valley, the Bay Area, and most of all, San Jose State as an academic institution; but he’s also here to play football and to help us grow and play better up front.

The running back thing got shot in the arm last year. There were a couple of guys we signed who just enrolled with us at the mid-year, so you’re going to see Kairee Robinson from De La Salle, a fantastic player, and also Lorenzo Birch from Carmichael Jesuit; and we really feel like those guys will give us a boost.

There are guys who weren’t on our roster last year who are going to help our running game. And, of course, we’re going to see the maturing from Tyler Nevens and DeJon Packer. We’re going to have a good mix of youth and maturity, so let’s see if we can run the football better because that’s what we need to do.

3. The Spartan offense has showed some glimpses of promise. Just how important do you think the offense will play a role in the Spartans’ success in 2019?
Yes, I think the offense will play a pretty big role in the Spartans’ success. It’s also a reflection of me, the offensive coaches, and the rest of Spartan Athletics as a whole.

4. What are some things the recruits could bring to the table that fans may not know about?
The track prowess of Dominic Mazotti, the fact that Jackson (Canaan) is a big-time swimmer–a totally legit swimmer, despite being a tight end, Isaiah Thomas is more of a crossover guy for us and we’re planning to make him one this coming season, and Malikhi Miller–who’s the stepson of (running backs) coach (Alonzo) Carter–but that’s a turning point as he has relationships with the other coaches and had to have a reason to join the (football) program. So that has been a positive. He’s a big 6’4″ kid, he’s got this big body and he’s going to grow into a monster wide receiver; but he’s still a little young, so he needs to grow into that big body.

Jamar Simpson…there’s a great video of him on YouTube of him and Adoree Jackson at the USC camp for their opening and they were having the fastest man competition and Adoree–who didn’t bet–but he said that this guy had it. So they were in all these camps all over Southern California and Jamar won every single one of them.

Jamar caught our eye at a USC camp and also some other catches. He had a lot of speed, so much that I wondered if his dad clocked his 40-time.

5. The mix of the younger and older players can help improve the team, just as long as they stay healthy and are willing to put in the work. Is the youth movement still important in this program?
Absolutely. I think there’s a real delicate balance there, and the real balance is how we fill our roster; but the last two years, we’ve seen a lot of young players playing on a significant level, and the best thing is about freshman is that they become sophomores, sophomores become juniors, and you hope that those reps they get in the game will help them improve and stack up to round out their learning experiences because they’ll be playing at a young age, but over time, they’ll be better prepared to handle things when they’re confronted with issues.

This is the time where I’m putting in time to develop the energy that helps us all form a bond that will be unbreakable when the college football games are underway on Saturday.

Wild run over Barracuda in 4-2 win

Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose Barracuda had not seen the Iowa Wild since 2016 and they didn’t care for what they saw on Tuesday evening at SAP Center. Iowa scored three unanswered goals to highlight a 4-2 victory over San Jose. The loss snapped San Jose’s four-game point streak at home.

Iowa (25-16-4-3) drew first blood on the power play more than half way through the first period. Dmitry Sokolov fed a pass over to Louie Belpedio at the left point and he wired a wrist shot top-shelf over the shoulder of Cuda goalie Josef Korenar (16-4-1), who was screened with traffic in front of the crease, for his fifth goal of the season at the 12:19 mark. Michael Kapla received the secondary assist.

The Wild dominated the opening frame as they controlled most of the play and outshot San Jose 12-8.

Iowa doubled its lead in the second period thanks to a failed clearing attempt by the Cuda. Will Bitten intercepted the puck and skated into the slot, where he fed a pass over Gerald Mayhew, who blasted a one-timer past Korenar for his 14th goal of the season at the 8:14 mark.

The Cuda looked shell-shocked after Mayhew’s goal as the Wild kept pouring on and scored 78 seconds later to go up 3-0. Colton Beck cleaned up a rebound on the right side of the net after Korenar initially stopped the shot by Matt Read along the left boards. Beck’s 13th goal of the season came at the 9:32 mark. Kapla received the secondary assist for a two-point evening.

“I think the chances (for Iowa compared to us) were 20-6,” said Cuda head coach Roy Sommer. “You’re going to have games like that. You can’t play .700 hockey all year, it’s pretty tough to do.”

San Jose (26-9-2-4) finally got on the board just over a minute later when Maxim Letunov intercepted a clearing attempt by Iowa and quickly fed a pass over to a wide-open Matt Fonteyne, who buried the puck in the back of the net, beating Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen (13-9-4) short side for his fourth goal of the season at the 10:38 mark.

Halfway through the third period, the Cuda had a chance on the power play to bring the deficit to a one-goal game, but Francis Perron had both of his point-blank chances in front of the crease denied by Khakonen.

San Jose seized a bit of momentum in what only took two seconds to cut the lead to 3-2. With Korenar on the bench for an extra attacker with 2:57 remaining in the game, captain John McCarthy won a clean face off inside the Wild zone and the puck trickled out to Nick DeSimone, who rifled a shot top-shelf past Khakonen for his eight goal of the season at the 17:05 mark.

“It’s kind of a set play,” said McCarthy. “Obviously we don’t know where the puck is gonna go after the face off but we were in desperation mode and Desi (DeSimone) got an open look and made a nice shot.”

Mayhew iced the game for the Wild when he intercepted a puck at the point and was able to skate down the right boards and score an empty-netter for his second goal of the night and his 15th goal of the season at the 18:41 mark.

“Most of that game, (for) two periods of the game we were pretty bad,” said DeSimone. “We’re not going to win hockey games when we’re not playing our game for 40 minutes and they’re taking it to us. That’s on us and we know that.”

Khakonen made 24 saves on 26 shots to earn his 13th win of the season. Korenar had a busy night between the pipes as he made 34 saves on 37 shots in suffering the defeat.

GAME NOTES: San Jose was 0/1 on the power play. Iowa was 1/3.

San Jose is 5-1-0-1 against the Central Division this season and 21-11-2-1 all time.

Jon Martin and Hunter Warner exchanged fisticuffs with each other a minute and half into the third period. Both received fighting majors.

The San Jose Sharks recalled forward Dylan Gambrell on Monday for their four-game road trip that began in Winnipeg tonight. Gambrell currently ranks third on the Barracuda in points (31), goals (11) and assists (17) with San Jose

The announced attendance was 2,534.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda travel down south to take on the red-hot Bakersfield Condors to start a three-game road trip on Friday, February 8 at 7:00 pm at Rabobank Arena.

San Jose State football announces 2019 schedule

Photo credit: sjsuspartans.com

By: Ana Kieu

Six home games spread from the last Thursday in August through the Saturday after Thanksgiving, no more than two consecutive weeks on the road, a first-time non-conference opponent in Arkansas and two bye weeks are ahead for San Jose State football in the 2019 season.

San Jose State opens in CEFCU Stadium on August 29, against Northern Colorado of the Big Sky Conference in a non-conference home game.

San Jose State’s other five home games are with Tulsa of the American Athletic Conference on September 7 and Mountain West opponents New Mexico on October 5, San Diego State on October 19, Boise State on November 2 and defending conference champion Fresno State on November 30.

“We have a schedule that will be exciting and challenging for our players and coaches and attractive for our fans. Right now, we’re in our winter conditioning program; spring practice will start in a month; and the season will be upon us quickly. I can’t wait,” said San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan, now in his third season leading the Spartans.

San Jose State’s first road game of the season will be at Arkansas on September 21. San Jose State is playing against its first SEC opponent since Auburn in the 2015 season. The Spartans’ other regular-season non-conference road game is at Army West Point on October 26. The game will be San Jose State’s first trip to play a football game in New York and second of the four game home-and-home series with the Black Knights.

The Mountain West schedule has the Spartans on the road at Air Force on September 28, at Nevada on October 12, at Hawaii on November 9 and at UNLV on November 23.

There are bye weeks on the weekends of September 14 and November 16.

After playing the 11th toughest schedule in 2018, according to the NCAA Statistics Service, San Jose State faces six teams that played in a bowl game a year ago.

The “early bird” season ticket renewal period begins online February 6, and runs through March 6.

San Jose State drops 12th in a row after 67-56 loss to San Diego State

Photo credit: @SJSUMBB

By: Ana Kieu

SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose State men’s basketball had yet to win a conference game and the fiery San Diego State Aztecs proved to be another tough opponent for the sluggish home team Saturday night at the Event Center.

Spartans head coach Jean Prioleau went with a starting lineup of Noah Baumann, Seneca Knight, Craig LeCesne, Ashtin Chastain and Michael Steadman.

SJSU jumped out to an early 3-0 lead as LeCesne hit a 3-pointer just 36 seconds into the first half. But SDSU took over for quite a while as four of their players (Matt Mitchell, Jalen McDaniels, Jeremy Hemsley and Devin Watson) hit back-to-back 3s in a span of two minutes and 44 seconds. The Aztecs continued pouring in the points as McDaniels knocked down two  jumpers, but the Spartans put an end to the Aztecs’ 13-0 run as Chastain made a layup at the 14:18 mark.

Not only that, SJSU inched their way back into the game. Steadman made a layup, Brae Ivey hit a 3, Knight added a layup, and then Chappell hit a 3 to make it a 1-point game with 7:38 left. The Spartans temporarily took a 17-16 lead on Chastain’s layup, but Hemsley hastily responded with a 3 for a 19-17 Aztecs lead with 5:46 left. Watson knocked down a jumper to extend the Aztecs’ lead to 21-17 with 4:58 left.

The game remained in a back-and-forth affair to close out the first. Ivey knocked down a jumper, Aguek Arop knocked down a paint jumper and Steadman made a layup. However, SJSU was unable to carry a lead to the locker room at halftime as they trailed 25-21. SDSU definitely benefited from Watson’s layup, which extended the lead to 25-21 with 1:13 left.

It was all SDSU to start the second half. McDaniels knocked down a jumper and a paint jumper in a span of 36 seconds. It was SJSU’s turn when Ivey knocked down a jumper at the 18:19 mark. The Spartans went on miniature runs that helped them inch their way back into the game in subtle ways. But the Spartans turned the ball over three times in two minutes with 7:21 left.

Fast forward to the final media timeout of the evening. SJSU trailed 57-44 with four minutes left. The Spartans were still in it, but they had their work cut out for them. The Spartans went on a 6-0 run, thanks to Knight’s 3 and LeCesne’s pair of fastbreak free throws and then a free throw.

The game didn’t really end as a back-and-forth affair. If there was a silver lining for SJSU, it’d be Baumann’s 3 with 10 seconds left. But Baumann wasn’t enough to save the day for the Spartans, who lost 67-56 and dropped to 3-18, 0-9 MW. The Aztecs rose to 13-8, 5-3 MW.

SJSU kicks off a two-game road trip next Saturday against the Boise State Broncos at 11:00 am PT.