Aztecs Rely Heavily on Watson’s Magic to Defeat Wyoming

Senior San Diego State guard Anthony Watson grew up inventing shots on the playgrounds of Detroit. In Motown, the home of Earvin “Magic” Johnson, it isn’t enough for a good offensive player to just score. As Watson said, “a player also has to have some magic in him.”

In Thursday’s Western Athletic Conference opener, Watson was the magic man who led the Aztecs to a 60-57 win over Wyoming in front of 5,636.

With 16 seconds remaining and the Aztecs trailing, 57-56, Watson went into his act.

Following a steal set up by Watson’s quick hands and clever anticipation, Coach Smokey Gaines was screaming for his team to call a timeout.

No way the Aztecs were going to call a timeout. They had possession and momentum, and Watson had the ball.

So what if forward Michael Kennedy was free on the right side of the court and Watson did not exactly have a high-percentage shot?

“An off-balance shot is not hard for me,” Watson said, “and I wanted it.”

He got it. Watson hung in the air for a 12-foot, off-balanced, corkscrew jumper from the left side of the foul line. The ball went right in to give the Aztecs a 58-57 lead with 16 seconds to play.

Following a Wyoming timeout, Cowboy guard Rodney Gowens missed a semi-desperation running 20-footer from the left side. With five seconds to play, Wyoming’s 6-2 freshman guard, Twalure Boyd, grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled by Anthony Sands.

The Aztecs called timeout to allow Boyd to think about the biggest one-and-one opportunity of his young career.

Boyd’s first attempt was off the front of the rim. Aztec forward Andre Ross grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He hit both ends of a one-and-one with three seconds remaining, and the Aztecs had secured a very big victory.

It was the first win in seven tries for the Aztecs (9-2) in Wyoming. It was only their second win in their last seven WAC openers. It broke a two-game losing streak, and it came against a good Wyoming team (7-5) that had a 27-7 record at the Arena Auditorium.

“This feels awful good,” Gaines said. “We’re fortunate to win this game . . . Watson is the type of player who can shoot you in and shoot you out.”

Not only was it an impressive win for the Aztecs, it was also somewhat of an amazing win for a team that made only 20 of 56 shots from the field for a feeble 36%. To shoot like that and win is almost as unusual as getting 12 more free throws attempts than the home team.

The Aztecs hit 20 of 29 free throws, while the Cowboys hit only 7 of 17 attempts.

“There were some tough calls against us in the last few minutes, but it (the officiating) was pretty fair for the whole game,” Gaines said while standing outside the jubilant Aztec locker room.

A very disappointed and subdued Wyoming Coach Jim Brandenburg disagreed. No big surprise there.

“I thought they got the breaks,” Brandenburg said. “When you hold them to 35% shooting and don’t win the game . . . “

Three reasons why the Cowboys were forced to go down to the wire in Thursday’s game: They turned the ball over 15 times; they were out-rebounded, 41-35; and they unable to take more than a 33-32 lead at halftime.

“We weren’t playing that bad in the first half,” Gaines said, “but we had some bad misses. I felt that if we could go into halftime down by three points, we’d be O.K.”

The fact that Watson sat out most of the first half with two fouls gave Gaines even more encouragement going into the final 20 minutes.

With Watson back in the lineup and center Leonard Allen (16 points and 9 rebounds) and point guard Creon Dorsey (nine points and five assists) playing their best games in weeks, the Aztecs stayed close throughout the second half. It was a three-point game during most of the second half.

The Aztecs were down four points with 1:16 left when Watson hit both ends of a one-and-one. The comeback was on.

For Watson, who scored 14 of his game-high 16 points in the second half, Thursday was a night of vindication as well as excitement.

The 6-3 junior guard was coming off a poor game against Michigan State.