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What: New Mexico Lobos vs San Jose State Spartans
When: Wednesday March 4th, 2020 at 3:30 pm Mountain.
Where: Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, NV
Coverage: The game will be broadcast on The Mountain West Network online. The UNM Sports Radio Network will have the radio call (770 AM/96.3 FM KKOB in Albuquerque).
Breakdown:
The New Mexico Lobos will try to extend their season when they take on the San Jose State Spartans Wednesday afternoon in the opening round of the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
The Lobos are looking for their second consecutive win, both over the Spartans and of the season. The Lobos beat Utah State on Saturday, and a win will set up a rematch with the Aggies on Thursday.
Carrying Momentum:
The Lobos overcame a 16-point second half deficit on Saturday night to knock off Utah State 66-64. With that win they broke a 5-game losing streak and built some momentum heading into this contest.
Helping with the momentum is the fact that the Lobos easily dispatched of the Spartans in their last contest between the two, an 86-59 win back on January 21st in The Pit. That game was even without Vance Jackson and JaQuan Lyle who will be in this game.
Top Players For San Jose State:
The last time these two met only Seneca Knight scored over 10 points when he scored 11 in the loss. He normally averages 16.9 points per game, and had 20 points in the Spartans previous game out against UNLV.
Richard Washington had a huge game against the Lobos in San Jose back on January 1st, when he scored 25 points on 7 made three-pointers. Five games ago he scored 31 against Air Force.
X-Factor For Lobos:
There was one player that excelled in last season’s MWC Tournament for UNM and that was Vance Jackson.
Jackson will need to have another big contest in this one, his game opens up so much more of the offense for the Lobos, as was the case on Saturday night against Utah State. He also had 25 in the first meeting with the Spartans.
Prediction:
San Jose State is struggling and the Lobos are carrying a ton of momentum into this game. With how the second matchup between these two went in Albuquerque without Jackson and Lyle, and the momentum the Lobos are carrying I expect the Lobos to win easily in this one. I got Lobos-85 Spartans-65.