USD Wins City Bragging Rights With 83-67 Rout

Perhaps Smokey Gaines was right. There does not appear to be a rivalry between his San Diego State Aztecs and the University of San Diego Toreros.

Rivalries are supposed to feature cross-town teams, close games and sizable crowds.

The last two certainly weren’t evident when SDSU and USD met Thursday night in the Sports Arena. USD was a runaway winner, 83-67, in front of 3,325 fans.

When was the game out of reach?

Maybe it was when USD hit its first eight field goal attempts, including two three-pointers, to take an 18-6 lead. Maybe it was when the Toreros scored 19 of 20 points midway through the half, taking a 32-7 lead.

Or maybe the game was over beforehand when USD Coach Hank Egan called it very important and Gaines said it was no big deal.

“I’ll tell you what--this is a rivalry,” USD guard Eric Musselman said. “I think it means something to be No. 1 in San Diego. I don’t care what anybody says. We beat them last year, so I would hope they’d want to get us back this year. If more people said it was a rivalry, maybe more people would’ve been here. If a businessman picks up the paper and sees their coach say it isn’t a rivalry, why would the businessman want to come?”

Gaines reiterated his original statement.

“Everyone wants to make a big deal out of USD,” he said. “It’s not Georgetown-St. John’s or Michigan State-Michigan. I think USD gets much more fired up than we do.”

Afterward in the Aztec locker room, players were anything but fired up. They went quietly about their business, some saying they didn’t want to talk about the game.

“This is as down as I’ve been in my life,” guard Tracy Dildy said. “It’s pitiful. I don’t think that team is that much better than we are. I can’t understand why we can’t get a win.”

Scott Thompson, USD’s 7-foot center, was one of the reasons. Thompson dominated inside against the much smaller Aztecs, hitting 10 of 14 field goal attempts to finish with a game-high 21 points.

“I think we have more power inside than SDSU,” Egan said. “We got the ball inside a lot and Scott really had a good day. When he does like he did today, he’s a handful.”

SDSU (0-3) had its problems from the beginning. USD scored nine unanswered points twice early on, taking leads of 13-4 and 24-6. The Toreros’ biggest lead was 43-12 with 2:38 remaining in the half.

USD (3-2) led at halftime, 46-20, and extended its lead to 30 points, 70-40, with 7 1/2 minutes remaining. The Aztecs actually wouldn’t have come so close if not for eight successful three-point shots in 18 attempts the second half.

“We just played bad, and that’s it,” Gaines said. “There’s nothing else to say. Write what you want to write because we stunk the place up. There’s no beating around the bush.”

Actually, Thursday’s game was the closest SDSU had come to winning this season.

“We expect to get beat this year, but not by 32, 17 and 16 points,” Gaines said. “That concerns me a little bit. We need to get a win under our belts to get the kids’ confidence.”

USD was coming off consecutive road losses against Nevada Reno (81-80 in overtime) and Montana State (76-66).

The Toreros dominated inside from the outset, taking their first six shots within the lane. It typified how the night would go.

USD forward Mark Manor had 15 points and a team-high 8 rebounds, and forward Nils Madden scored 14. Guard Paul Leonard also scored 14 points.

SDSU forward Rodney Hawkins had 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. However, forward Gerald Murray was held scoreless in six minutes and center Kevin Brown had 5 points in 17 minutes. Dildy led the Aztecs with 17 points.

USD hit 33 of 54 field goal attempts (61/1%) and SDSU was 25 of 67 (37.3%). The Toreros were 2 of 5 from three-point range and SDSU was 8 of 22.