Aztecs Break Hawaii Jinx With 70-66 Win

The San Diego State basketball players haven’t seen a lot of Honolulu in recent years. That’s because they had lost six of seven games at the Neil Blaisdell Center.

Before the games, the players relax in the hotel. After the losses, sightseeing is out.

However, after Thursday night’s 70-66 Western Athletic Conference win over Hawaii, this morning could be filled with fun and sun for Anthony Watson, Leonard Allen and company.

Watson scored 21 points and Micheal Kennedy has 16 and Andre Ross added 11 for the Aztecs. Andre Morgan led Hawaii with 24.

SDSU raced out to a 45-30 halftime lead, but the Rainbows quickly cut their deficit to 48-44 after five minutes of the second half.

With 14:27 to play, Watson missed a dunk on a fast break and it appeared the Aztecs might be on their way to blowing a game they appeared to have in hand.

Seconds later, a basket by Ray Arthur was disallowed when charging was called. Kennedy followed with a dunk on a missed shot by John Martens and the Aztecs led 50-44.

A layup by Kennedy on a fast break and a three-point play on a layup by Watson gave the Aztecs a 55-46 lead with 11:15 to play. Watson’s basket was set up by a Creon Dorsey steal.

In the final 10 minutes, the Rainbows cut the lead to 61-58, but that was as close as they got.

The win improves the Aztecs’ record to 14-4 and 5-2 in the WAC. Hawaii dropped its ninth straight and is 4-13 and 0-7 in the conference.

In other WAC games, UTEP improved its record to 6-1 with a 79-45 home win over Colorado State (3-2). BYU (5-2) beat Wyoming (3-4), 78-65 in Provo.

That makes SDSU the only visiting team in the WAC to win on Thursday night.

As if the Aztecs didn’t face enough obstacles coming in, Thursday night’s game was the Rainbows’ first since Coach Larry Little announced on Tuesday that he will resign at the end of the season.

When a coach is fired or resigns, it often tends to give his team a shot in the arm. The last things the Aztecs needed was to wake up a team that has been asleep for much of the season.

Coming into the game, the Aztecs knew they had to get off to a quick start in order to counteract whatever spirit the Rainbows might have.

Unlike the past few games when the Aztecs depended on scoring from their backcourt, the forwards took charge at the start of Thursday night’s game.

Kennedy and Ross, who have gone weeks without playing well in the same game, combined for 11 of the Aztecs’ first 15 points. Kennedy had six and Ross had five.

In a sloppy game dominated by turnovers, the Aztecs took a 10-9 lead on a stuff by Allen with just over 15 minutes to play in the half. They extended the advantage to 19-15 at the midway point of the period.

With Dorsey effectively penetrating the Rainbow zone and passing the ball to the free man, the Aztecs increased their lead to 27-18.

When Hawaii tried to pick up the pace and press the Aztecs at midcourt, San Diego State started scoring points in bunches. Watson scored three layups within a minute to give the Aztecs a 35-24 lead.

By halftime, the Aztecs had increased their lead to 45-30. The balanced SDSU scoring was paced by Watson and Kennedy with 12 each and Ross with 11.

Morgan, the Rainbows’ leading scorer with a 15.2 average, scored 14 points on long jump shots in an attempt to keep Hawaii in the game.