BYU Cleans Up in Second Half to Defeat San Diego State, 81-71

After eight straight wins, Coach Ladell Andersen of Brigham Young finally took his lucky sport coat to the cleaners last weekend.

When Andersen, his coat and the Cougars returned from a 12-day layoff Thursday night, San Diego State was taken to the cleaners. BYU handed the Aztecs their first home loss in six Western Athletic Conference games, 81-71, before a season-high crowd of 4,153 fans at the Sports Arena.

SDSU actually had as much to do with the outcome as BYU did. Several times in the second half, the Aztecs were unable to take advantage of opportunities that were staring them in the face.

Consider:

- John Martens missed an uncontested layup when the Aztecs led, 49-44, three minutes into the half.

- Tracy Dildy and Steffond Johnson each missed two free throws down the stretch when the game was somewhat in doubt. Kevin Brown missed the front end of a one-and-one, then he later missed two free throws when the game was out of reach.

- Bobby Owens could not control his dribble after stealing the ball with 2 1/2 minutes remaining. So, instead of cutting SDSU’s margin to three points, the Aztecs still trailed, 72-67.

“Free throws and layups,” Coach Smokey Gaines said with a wince. “That was the whole ballgame in a nutshell right there.”

There was more to the game than SDSU’s critical errors. The BYU defense also had much to do with its comeback from a 45-40 halftime deficit.

SDSU’s Anthony Watson, who led all scorers with 32 points, was held to seven in the second half. BYU went to a box-and-one defense, meaning one man stayed with Watson and the other four played a zone.

Credit the Cougar defense--and SDSU’s inability to adjust when BYU adjusted.

“It kind of worked,” Andersen said. “I’m not sure how good of a job we did. He didn’t get 25 (points) in the second half.”

Watson has averaged 30 points in the last five games, but there was a point to be made concerning his inability to score in the second half against BYU.

Ideally, if BYU was guarding Watson so closely, somebody else should have been getting open to shoot. But that somebody else remained anonymous.

“You have to penetrate then,” Watson said. “I don’t think our guards were penetrating. That’s when you have the advantage. Our guards sat out and accepted the jump shots. We really didn’t hit many of them.”

SDSU hit 45.3% of its field goals but shot only 31% in the second half. BYU shot 52.5% overall and 58.3% in the second half.

The Cougars are 7-2 in the WAC and 12-9 overall. Since Wyoming lost to Texas El Paso on Thursday, 72-58, BYU is in sole possession of second place, half a game behind UTEP. SDSU is 6-5 and 7-14.

BYU also did well defending Johnson, SDSU’s 6-foot 8-inch center. Johnson had 8 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, but just 3 of his rebounds came after halftime.

Bob Capener, a graduate of Torrey Pines High School, led BYU with 22 points. Jeff Chatman scored 21, all but 2 in the first half.

The Cougars’ game-winning run came in the middle of the second half when they outscored SDSU, 9-3, in a three-minute period. When the streak was over, BYU held a 68-61 lead with 5:16 remaining.

In the first half, the Cougars had attempted to run with the quicker Aztecs. But after BYU changed its strategy at halftime, SDSU was unable to keep up with the plan.

“We tried to change the tempo,” Andersen said. “That was the whole thing.”

Andersen may have changed the tempo, but he wasn’t about to change sport coats.