LAS VEGAS — San Jose State hit the Mountain West men’s basketball tournament running on Wednesday.
The No. 8 seeded Spartans scored the first 12 points of the game and never trailed in a 66-61 win over No. 9 Wyoming at the Thomas & Mack Center. The Spartans had been 1-10 all-time in Mountain West tournament games since joining the conference 11 seasons ago, the lone victory an 81-77 overtime win over Nevada in the 2023 quarterfinals.
With the win over the Cowboys, SJSU (15-18) advances to the quarterfinals on Thursday against No. 1 seeded New Mexico.
San Jose State defeated Wyoming (12-20) for the third straight time and led by as many as 22 points late in the first half. But the Cowboys managed to put a small scare into the Spartans by going on a 22-9 run to open the second half.
SJSU’s advantage was cut to 64-61 with 23 second remaining, but Josh Uduje made a pair of free throws to seal the victory.
Donavan Yap led the Spartans with 19 points, going 4-for-8 from 3-point range. His four three-pointers made is the most for a Spartan player in a MW Tournament game since Ryan Welage made five in 2018 against Wyoming.
Sadaidriene Hall scored 15 of his 16 points in the first half, going 6-for-9 from the field. Uduje added 15 points with eight rebounds.
Jordan Nesbitt led the Cowboys with 19 points, scoring 14 of his points in the second half.
The win was the Spartans’ 45th since the start of the 2022-23 season, the most wins in a three-year span since the team won 46 games from 1985-88 while in the Big West Conference.
San Jose State advances to the MW quarterfinals for the second time in school history. They lost 83-77 at New Mexico in their conference opener but beat the Lobos 71-70 at the Event Center in mid-January when Latrell Davis hit the game-winning shot with two seconds left in regulation. It was just one of three conference losses this season for the Lobos, who are 25-6 overall.