Aztecs Knock Off BYU to Keep Lead

Whenever Brigham Young University comes into town these days, championships seem to be a hot topic.

The Cougar football team won the Holiday Bowl last month at San Diego, concluding its season with a perfect record and a No. 1 national ranking.

The BYU basketball team was on hand Saturday night with a potential Western Athletic Conference championship team to showcase. But it was San Diego State--not BYU--that looked like the team that may win the WAC this season.

San Diego State retained first place in the WAC with its fourth straight conference win as it beat BYU, 89-70, in front of a season-high crowd of 6,024 at the Sports Arena.

“They’re one of the two or three best teams in our league so far,” BYU Coach Ladell Andersen said of the Aztecs. “I think teams will have a hard time beating them here. It will surprise me if somebody doesn’t do it, but they’ll have to play a lot better than we did.”

Realistically, the game was over at halftime when San Diego State led, 38-23. The Aztecs shot 53.6% in the half, BYU 29.4%.

Things did not get any better for the Cougars early in the second half. Three times within the first five minutes of the half, San Diego State led by 22.

By the end of the game, Aztec Coach Smokey Gaines was even feeling a little sorry for BYU. After all, the Cougars received a technical foul for sending in Bob Cochran, who somehow was not listed on the team roster in the official scorebook.

After Anthony Sands missed the technical foul shot with 1:01 to play, he was supposed to get two additional free throws. Sands was not given the shots, but Gaines did not argue.

“It really didn’t matter,” Gaines said. “Ladell is a nice guy. If the other guy (Frank Arnold) had still been coaching there, things probably would have been a little different.”

Gaines and Arnold never did get along. But those days are gone, and so may be the days of San Diego State being a middle of the road WAC team.

The Aztecs ran all over BYU by mainly running around and through the Cougars. San Diego State utilized a three-guard offense much of the time, and beat the slower Cougars.

On one particular play, point guard Creon Dorsey passed to guard Jeff Konek, who passed to guard Anthony Watson for a layup.

“When we’re on a break, we have guards on either side and me in the middle,” Dorsey said. “It makes an ideal break. The big men don’t have to run as fast to catch up with the smaller guys.”

But everyone did a good job for San Diego State Saturday night. Center Leonard Allen and Watson each scored a game-high 20 points.

Forward Andre Ross scored 15 points, forward Michael Kennedy and Dorsey each added 10. Konek came off the bench to record a team-high seven assists.

Dorsey, who stands 5-feet 11-inches, is the only player the Aztecs’ only scholarship recruit this year. He took the place of power forward Michael Cage, the Aztecs’ mainstay the previous four seasons.

“People ask me why I replaced a 6-9 man with a guy 5-11,” Gaines said. “Creon has been giving us what we haven’t had at point guard for two or three years. That’s why we brought him in.”

The Aztecs made short work of BYU in a 5:11 stretch of the first half. San Diego State outscored the Cougars, 15-2, to take a 24-13 lead with 7:29 left. Shortly thereafter, Dorsey scored six consecutive points to give the Aztecs a 32-19 lead.

“We started coming down and getting better shot selection,” Gaines said. “The first few times down, we didn’t get the ball inside and get people in foul trouble.”

Timo Saarelainen, BYU’s leading scorer, eventually got in foul trouble. He recorded his third foul with 7:42 left in the half and did not return until the start of the second half. San Diego State outscored the Cougars, 16-10, while Saarelainen was on the bench.

Saarelainen finished with 18 points despite one of his worst shooting nights of the season. He made only 5 of 14 from the field.

BYU fell to 1-2 in the WAC and 7-7 overall. San Diego State is 4-0, 12-2. It next plays WAC games Friday at New Mexico and Saturday at Texas El Paso.

“We’d like to win them both,” Gaines said. “We’d also be very happy to come back 5-1 and have 8 of our last 12 games at home.”