GAME NOTES: The San Jose State Spartans are running out of time if they hope to register a win this season against another Division I opponent. Their next opportunity comes on Saturday as they take on the Nevada Wolf Pack in Mountain West Conference play at the Lawlor Events Center.

Not only is SJSU winless in conference play through 15 opportunities, the team is now dealing with a losing streak that has reached 17 straight, since defeating St. Katherine College on Dec. 9. The campaign has been so disappointing for the Spartans that they have only two wins in a total of 27 chances.

The last outing for the program took place three nights ago at Colorado State, a meeting that resulted in a 72-56 setback. The team now has just three chances left in the regular season to pick up that elusive first league win and the first versus a team of a similar caliber.

While the Spartans own the final spot in the MWC standings all to themselves, Nevada is slightly further up in the chain with a mark of 4-11, but that only gets the group to 10th position in an 11-team conference. The Pack was on the road earlier this week and was dealt a 75-70 setback by the Air Force Falcons, the third straight defeat for the program and the 11th in the last 13 outings overall.

The Pack barely won the first meeting of the season, 60-57, in California earlier this month, but still the team has won all but one of the last 14 encounters in the series and now leads the relationship overall by a count of 53-48.

The Spartans fell behind Colorado State right out of the chute and never recovered, shooting just 8-of-29 from the floor in the first half, although the hole was not as deep as it could have been considering all but one of those conversions came from long range. The team finished the night hitting just 34.5 percent from the field as Jaleel Williams tallied 20 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Rashad Muhammad tacked on 18 points as he and Williams combined to hit 8-of-19 on the perimeter.

The entire campaign has been a disaster for the Spartans, but the troubles against the rest of the MWC have been especially brutal with the team being outscored by 20.8 ppg. The Spartans have made good on a feeble 33.0 percent of their field goals chances and just 29.3 percent from beyond the arc, en route to 51.1 ppg. Muhammad accounts for 15.4 ppg, but his 34.6 percent effort from the floor is particularly troubling. Williams is now up to 10.9 ppg and is responsible for 5.2 rpg, but he too has had trouble finding the basket at just 37.2 percent.

The Falcons led by as many as 13 points with just over three minutes remaining in regulation against Nevada in the last outing, but the Academy nearly let one slip away before holding on for the five-point home win. The Pack was paced by Eric Cooper Jr. who dropped in a game-high 20 points, although he shot just 4-of-12 behind the 3-point line. D.J. Fenner posted 18 points and four steals off the bench, while Tyron Criswell added 12 points. Although his scoring was a bit off from the norm, coming up with only 11 points, AJ West did make a significant impact with a game-high 16 rebounds nonetheless.

West remains the leading point producer in conference play for the Pack with his 13.7 ppg, having knocked down 52.5 percent of his field goal tries, but his 61.3 percent shooting at the free-throw line could be a reason for concern. He is easily the top rebounder on the squad with 12.6 rpg, pushing the group to a 6.2 rpg advantage over the rest of the league, although even with those numbers, and his 39 blocked shots, it is difficult to look beyond the fact that he has 39 turnovers and just nine assists.

While anything can happen on any given night in sports, the planets would have to align perfectly for the Spartans to be able to get that first conference win of the season. Although, SJSU should be encouraged by the fact that it played close to the Pack in the first meeting of the campaign.