Box Score

RALEIGH, N.C. - Phil Calvert scored a game-high 21 points and San Jose State kept Fairleigh Dickinson scoreless for a seven-minute span of the second-half to post a 65-57 sseason-opening victory in a first-round Black Coaches Association Invitational tournament game.

The Spartans will face host North Carolina State in a Thursday night winners’ bracket contest at 4:00 p.m. (PST). The Wolfpack scored an easy 95-51 win over Prairie View.

San Jose State struggled in the first half as Fairleigh Dickinson’s perimeter shooting boosted the Knights to a 31-24 halftime lead. Guard Marcus Whitaker, who finished with 20 points, and Iman Mattox, a transfer from Chabot College, combined to make six of Fairleigh Dickinson’s seven three-point baskets.

"In the first half, they had us on our heels. Early on, we were stagnant. We got away from what we know how to do. We were not playing our game," said forward David Granucci, who finished with a game-high nine rebounds and added eight points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field.

The Spartans somehow managed to stay in the game despite shooting 28.6 percent from the field in the first half. San Jose State continued to struggle on both ends of the court the first six minutes of the second half and trailed 44-30 after Fairleigh Dickinson’s Whitaker made his fifth and final three-point basket of the game.

A 16-0 Spartan rally culminated by a Calvert three-point basket gave San Jose State its first lead of the game, 46-44 with 7:14 left to go. Twice after that, Fairleigh Dickinson cut San Jose State’s lead to one point, but never regained the lead.

"The key was we played hard with detail. We got our defense into the game and we stayed in front of people," said San Jose State coach Steve Barnes, who has led the Spartans to season-opening wins in each of his three seasons at the helm.

"We got a nice pep talk at halftime. We may have had the first half jitters and got caught up in the moment. I think we were more excited than nervous," said Calvert, a 6-foot-3 transfer from Cloud County Community College who added eight more points in the final six-and-a-half minutes in his major college debut.

Fairleigh Dickinson ended up making just 10-of-30 three-point basket tries and shot 38.9 percent for the game.

"They threw a big ‘punch’ at us and we didn’t react the way we should have. We just lost our composure. We just kind of faltered a little bit when they made their big run," said Whitaker.

Forward Gary Black was the Spartans’ only other double-figure scorer with 12 points.