Aztecs Rout Lobos, Meet Texas El Paso in WAC Final Today

The San Diego State players sure were happy to see the cherry and silver uniforms of New Mexico on Friday night at the Special Events Center here.

“It feels good to play competition,” said Aztec center Leonard Allen. “It gets boring playing against ourselves in practice.”

After a 12-day layoff from game competition, the Aztecs were anything but flat in their convincing 98-84 win over the Lobos in front of 11,551 spectators.

The game actually wasn’t even that close.

SDSU jumped out to a 15-5 lead after seven minutes, led 40-29 at halftime and increased its lead to 24 points after six minutes of the second half.

From then on, the Aztecs (22-7) cruised to an easy win in the semifinal round of the Western Athletic Conference tournament.

The victory advances the Aztecs to this afternoon’s championship game against Texas El Paso (2 p.m., KSDO-1130 AM, Channel 51).

UTEP defeated Utah in overtime, 82-73, in the other semifinal game on Friday night. The Aztecs split their two meetings with UTEP during the regular season, but they never have won in El Paso.

Coming into Friday night’s game, the Aztecs appeared to have had everything going against them.

New Mexico (18-12) had won three straight and the Aztecs had lost two in a row. The Lobo fans outnumbered the Aztec fans by about 1,000 to 140 on what was supposedly a neutral court, and the Aztecs never had won in seven games at the Special Events Center.

But forget those numbers. The Aztecs came out fired up against a team they had split two games with during the regular season.

It was a team effort for the Aztecs, who played 15 minutes of the first half without their leading scorer Anthony Watson. They also played almost the entire game without forward Andre Ross (no points in two minutes), who was benched after being late for recent practices. He had started the team’s last 21 games.

Allen scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Watson hit 21 of his 23 points in the second half. Gerald Murray had 12 points and 7 rebounds. And John Martens and Creon Dorsey had 11 points apiece.

Both Watson and Allen rebounded from poor games in the losses to Hawaii and Colorado State. And the M&M; combo of Martens and Murray were the surprise heroes.

Allen scored 22 of his 25 game-high points in the second half, but he immediately made his presence felt. Three of his six blocked shots came in the opening minutes when the Aztecs were in a man-to-man defense--and the tone was set.

During the regular season, New Mexico led the WAC in field goal percentage with a .513 mark by taking the ball inside, but on Friday night SDSU’s front line quickly served notice to the Lobos not to drive down the middle of the lane. For the game, the Aztecs outrebounded the Lobos, 45-35.

Lobo forward John Brown scored 16 of his team-high 22 points in the first half, but none of his other teammates helped out when the going was tough early.

“They seemed more determined tonight,” Brown said, “And they outplayed us. . . . Allen was particularly determined. We were playing against a senior that hasn’t been in the NCAA tournament. He was very intense.”

So were Allen’s teammates. The Aztecs came out running and controlled the tempo of the game.

Give a lot of credit for the Aztecs’ movement and cohesive play on offense to Martens, who has not started a game since he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Dec. 26.

“John is a smart player who does all the small things that don’t show up in the stats,” Watson said. “He doesn’t make mental mistakes and he gives us continuity on offense.”

In the opening minutes, Martens hit a 15-foot jump shot from the right corner and drove the lane for a layup. He scored nine points in the first half.

“I felt confident going into the game,” Martens said. “I’m a lot more relaxed when I start, and when I hit my first shot, things really eased up.”

Martens has been more mobile and has been playing better in practice recently, but the only reason he started on Friday night was because Ross was late to practice on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“All I’ll say is that we’re better with Martens in the lineup,” Aztec Coach Smokey Gaines said.

Against New Mexico, the Aztecs were also better with Murray in the lineup, too.

Some of the players in the New Mexico locker room didn’t remember Murray from the team’s two regular season meetings, but a look at their bruises will remind them who he is.

“If I had to go into a fight,” Gaines said, “I would take Gerald with me.”

When Murray went in the game, Gaines told him to “block out and rebound like heck.”

Murray did both, grabbing three rebounds and scoring nine points.

“Early in the first half,” Murray said, “I could already see that they were frustrated and in despair.”

By then, the the Aztecs were on their way to taking a giant step toward the possibility of gaining an NCAA berth.

“I think we should go to the NCAA no matter what happens in the championship game,” Murray said. “But right now, I just want to cherish this moment.”