Aztecs Experience a Numbing Defeat at Hands of Utah

A 24-foot, game-winning jump shot by a Utah player with a numb shooting arm left the San Diego State players numb on Saturday night in Utah.

The final seconds of the Utes’ dramatic, 67-65, Western Athletic Conference win over the Aztecs in the Special Events Center was straight out of a made-for-television sports movie.

With nine seconds to play and the game tied at 65, the Utes called timeout to set up a final shot for either hot-shooting guard Manuel Hendrix (24 points) or guard Kelvin Upshaw.

Upshaw? Last time the Aztecs looked, the Utes’ leading scorer on the season was sitting on the bench, holding his injured shooting arm.

Suddenly, Upshaw was reinstated in the game to take the final shot if the Aztecs’ box-and-one defense on Hendrix is successful.

Utah Coach Lynn Archibald wasn’t sure about bringing Upshaw back in the game, but his assistants convinced him.

Upshaw completed the script by hitting the jump shot with two seconds to play from just inside the baseline in the right corner. Upshaw finished with 10 points, 8 in the first half.

“I jumped as he shot,” said a dejected Creon Dorsey, “and I knew it was good right away.”

The Aztecs immediately called timeout to set up a final play. Andre Ross passed the ball inbounds to Jeff Konek near half court. Konek whipped a pass to Anthony Watson, who took two dribbles and fired a wide-open 35-footer from behind the left side of the key.

Two dribbles was one dribble too many as Watson’s shot--which bounced off the backboard and the rim--would not have counted anyway.

“If we had pressured him,” joked Utah Coach Lynn Archibald, “he probably would have made it.” Watson hit only 7 of 20 shots, but he did score 12 of his 16 points in the second half.

When the buzzer sounded, the stunned Aztec players dashed out in the cold to their dark bus with a 7-3 WAC record, 16-5 overall.

The Utah players hugged one another.

Reporters rushed to find the Utah team doctor to hear about the Upshaw saga.

It was as much of a miracle that Upshaw was able to play as it was that he hit a shot that Archibald said “was an excellent shot for him.”

Upshaw took a shot to the ribs and right forearm when he was knocked to the floor in a collision under his own basket with 7:06 to play in the first half. He left the court with his arm dangling, and was rushed to the University of Utah Medical Center.

Dr. Alan Newman, the Utah team doctor, said the x-rays showed that there was no fracture in his right forearm and no fractured ribs.

With a light snow falling, the doctor and the 6-2 junior guard listened to the game on the radio as they made the two-minute drive from the hospital back to the Special Events Center.

“He kept saying he wanted to get back in,” Newman said.

With four minutes gone in the second half, Upshaw returned to the arena. At 11:54, the crowd of 10,667 greeted Upshaw as he ran back on the court.

After playing less than two minutes and taking only one shot, Upshaw asked to be removed from the game.

“I thought I could play at first,” Upshaw said, “but my ribs and forearm started to tighten up.”

Somehow, he had one more shot in him.

“We’ve been haunted by losing the close games this season,” Upshaw said. “We finally got one.”

As far as the Aztecs were concerned, the game never should have come down to a final shot.

Despite having a 1-5 record at Utah, the Aztecs expected to beat an 8-13 Utah team that was playing without star forward Jerry Stroman, who underwent arthroscopic surgery after suffering torn cartilage in his right knee last week.

SDSU had already beaten the Utes, 76-67, on Jan. 10 in San Diego, and the Aztecs were coming off a big win over BYU at Provo on Thursday night.

On Saturday night, the Aztecs played the Utes to a 37-37 first half tie, despite playing much of the final 10 minutes of the half with a makeshift lineup.

Three starters--Watson, Ross and Michael Kennedy--were on the bench for a good part of the half. Without them, and with a listless Leonard Allen, the Aztecs still remained in the game. Allen had only 1 point and 7 rebounds in the half, and 5 points and 13 rebounds for the game).

It appeared to be just a matter of time before the Aztecs broke loose.

Shortly before the 13 minute mark of the second half, the Aztecs made a move which appeared to have them headed toward their fifth conference road win in seven games.

They ran off 10 straight points to take a 63-53 lead with just over 10 minutes to play.

However, the Utes quickly countered with eight points in a row to make it a game again.

Ross scored two of his 16 points on a lay up at 3:54 to give the Aztecs a 65-61 lead. It was the Aztecs’ final basket of the night.

Utah forward Bobby Adair (17 points) hit two free throws to cut the lead to 65-63, and then 6-9 forward Tim McLaughlin scored his only two points of the game on a great four-foot tip at 2:18.

With the score tied at 65 and just over a minute remaining, SDSU had the ball. At the 30-second mark, Ross took a lob pass underneath the basket from Dorsey. He was stripped of the ball in traffic, and no foul was called.

“I was definitely hit,” Ross said, “but I was hit all night.”

The Aztecs made only 5 of 10 free throw attempts, while the Utes made 15 of 20.

“But we can’t use that as an alibi,” Ross added. He just shook his head once again.

The numbness in Upshaw’s arm will probably wear off before the Aztec players regain the good feeling they had for about 42 hours--from late Thursday night to early Saturday evening.