Aztecs Win Home Opener, but . . . : Cal Poly Pomona Proves to Be Tougher Than Expected

As if the San Diego State basketball team did not know this already, nothing will come easily this season. Not even the supposedly easy ones.

The Aztecs played host to Cal Poly Pomona, an NCAA Division II team, in their home opener Tuesday night. This was a team SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg had scheduled to give his team an early-season break.

But instead of playing the role assigned, the Broncos almost pressed SDSU into an upset before losing, 76-65, in front of an announced crowd of 1,898 at the San Diego Sports Arena.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, we were a 3,” said Bryan Williams, SDSU point guard. “That’s offensively and defensively.”

Brandenburg was not so tough on his team. He blamed the close victory on his asking too much too soon from his new team.

“A lot of this is my fault,” Brandenburg said. “I’m trying to get them to play within a new system, and they’re just not comfortable yet with everything we’re trying to do.”

Still the Aztecs did have five players in double figures, led by 13 points each from forward Rodney Hawkins and guard Tony Ross. Hawkins and Williams also shared team rebounding honors with 7. Hawkins also had 5 assists and 4 blocked shots.

But as has been their pattern in their first three games under Brandenburg, the Aztecs (2-1) started slowly. They trailed by nine points in the first 10 minutes and were letting the Broncos (2-2) control the action.

“We didn’t come here just to throw up the white flag,” said Dave Bollwinkel, the Broncos’ first-year coach.

Cal Poly Pomona stayed right with the Aztecs until the final minutes, trailing by only 55-54 with 7:48 to play. But the Aztecs went on a 12-4 streak to take a 67-58 lead with 4:17 to play.

The Broncos never let the Aztecs get away, however, using their 2-2-1 zone press to help force SDSU into 20 turnovers. Williams had six turnovers and forward Juan Espinoza had four.

“I didn’t think our press would work that well,” Bollwinkel said. “But I’m sure glad it did.”

Cal Poly Pomona did draw back to 70-64 on a 10-foot hook shot by guard Nate Macon with 45 seconds to play, but Hawkins converted a one-and-one a second later and Williams added four more free throws in the final 24 seconds. The final margin was the Aztecs’ only double-figure lead of the game.

Tony Theisen led the Broncos with 20 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

The Aztecs again showed some of the weaknesses that they demonstrated in their split in the Sun Met tournament over the weekend.

Their 2-3 zone defense had trouble guarding shots from the wing, junior center Mitch McMullen fouled out with 9:17 to play, and his replacement, Sam Johnson, continued to struggle with his move to center from forward.

Brandenburg was limited in his substitutions because of a flu that has slowed Hawkins and freshman center Neil Steinly.

“I really don’t feel good,” Hawkins said. “But I wanted to play. We’re the kind of team that everyone has to be there to do their best. We can’t just take a day off.”

But that was the way it seemed some of the Aztecs played to start the game. The Broncos won the tap and scored first in what was an early indication that this game might not be as easy as the Aztecs would have hoped.

Cal Poly Pomona went on to take a 15-8 lead with 11:31 left in the half. The Broncos stretched their advantage to 18-9 as the Aztecs went 5:17 without a field goal until Caldin Rogers, a reserve forward, scored on a driving baseline layup to cut the Broncos edge to 19-11 with 10:15 to play in the half.

That was the start of a three-minute span in which the Aztecs outscored the Broncos, 11-1, to regain the lead at 20-19 at 7:16. The lead changed four times and the game was tied three times over the next six minutes until the Aztecs scored the last six points of the half to lead, 34-30.

“We’re not out there just playing basketball all the time,” Williams said. “Sometimes we’re worried about making mistakes and not playing the game. We want to do what the coaches tells us to do. But sometimes it takes us a while to put two and two together.”

Aztec Notes

San Diego State is off until Friday at 7 p.m. PST when it plays host Arizona State in the first round of the Kactus tournament in Tempe, Ariz. The other first-round game will match Richmond and Tulsa. The championship and consolation games will be Saturday starting at 5 p.m. PST. The Aztecs’ next home game is Dec. 10 against U.S. International. The game starts a six-game home stand that concludes with the Holiday Bowl tournament Dec. 27-28 . . . The last time SDSU won its home opener was in 1984 against Morgan State, 128-68 . . . The Aztecs shot 54.2% (26 of 48) to the Broncos’ 44.2% (23 of 52).