Aztecs Buried Under Second-Half Blitz by Arizona State, 91-68

In his short tenure at San Diego State, Jim Brandenburg has demonstrated an impressive ability to keep the Aztecs in almost any game.

But in the first round of the Kactus tournament against Arizona State Friday night, he showed he can also help take the Aztecs out of a game.

Brandenburg was at the center of the controversy when the SDSU bench was assessed two technical fouls in the final five seconds of the first half, allowing the Sun Devils to turn a six-point lead into a 10-point advantage.

The Aztecs never recovered as the Sun Devils ran away in the second half for a 91-68 victory in front of 6,032 at the University Activity Center.

SDSU (2-2) will play Tulsa (1-1) in the consolation game today at 5 p.m. PST, followed by the championship game between Arizona State (3-0) and Richmond (2-1).

Richmond came back from a 13-point halftime deficit to defeat Tulsa, 64-60, in the first game Friday night.

Arizona State was led by senior guard Arthur Thomas, who scored a game-high 21 points. Thomas was perfect on his 13 free throws, including the four after the two technical fouls.

The technicals came after the Aztecs had scored five consecutive points, cutting the lead to 39-33, with nine seconds left in the half when junior point guard Bryan Williams stole an inbounds pass. Williams was called for charging by the umpire, Richie Ballesteros, as he attempted to shoot. The ball went back to Arizona State with five seconds left.

No sooner was the call made than Ballesteros, an official with the Pacific 10 Conference, turned to the SDSU bench and called the first technical. When Brandenburg continued to protest, Ballesteros charged him with a second technical.

Brandenburg said he did not know who on the bench said something to cause the first technical but said the second was all his.

“There was no curse words or anything like that, I don’t think,” Brandenburg said. “Then he (Ballesteros) just runs down and points back. That’s a technical on me, and I was just sitting there. If I was going to get a technical, I might as well get a say. When I got my say, then that’s when I got the two.”

That quickly, the Aztecs went from having a chance to cut the halftime lead to four to trailing by 10, 43-33.

“I just don’t think it was a charge,” Williams said. “He (Brandenburg) had to say something. It was a good time to say something. The refs were calling bad calls up to that point. He had to express his opinion.”

The Sun Devils made it a quiet second half for the Aztecs, outscoring them, 9-2, in the first two minutes and went on to lead by as much as 29 points, 82-53, with 5:21 to play.

“Those technicals really hurt them,” said Steve Patterson, the Arizona State coach, “but I don’t think it cost them the game.”

The Aztecs had three players foul out--forwards Rodney Hawkins, Sam Johnson and Caldin Rogers--and were outscored, 35-14, on the line.

Williams led the Aztecs with 14 points. Tony Ross had 13 points but shot only 3 of 10 from the field.

Junior center Mitch McMullen struggled again at the free-throw line, making only 1 of 7. But McMullen had the burden of playing on the same court that his late brother, Corey, played on. Corey, who died of leukemia over the summer, was a forward at Arizona State from 1981-83.

“I just wanted to keep the McMullen tradition alive on this court,” McMullen said. “I guess I didn’t do the best job of that.”

Much of the first half was filled with the kind of basketball that has characterized the Aztecs under Brandenburg.

They played sloppy at times, looked ragged on offense and committed their fair share of fouls, but still somehow managed to stay close.

The Aztecs scored nine consecutive points in a 1:40 span to turn a 12-6 deficit into a 15-12 lead with 10:57 left in the first half. Ross scored six of the points on two three-point shots and assisted on a layup by Johnson.

The Aztecs trailed, 20-18, with eight minutes to play in half before the Sun Devils went on another spurt, outscoring SDSU, 17-8, over the next five minutes to lead at 37-26 at 2:58. Once again, SDSU found a way to rally, only to have it unravel after the technical fouls.

“By the second half, we got in so much foul trouble, things just kind of fell apart piece by piece,” Brandenburg said. “Right now, we’re a very frustrated basketball team.”

Aztec Notes

After the Kactus tournament, San Diego State returns to the San Diego Sports Arena for six consecutive games. The home stand starts Thursday against U.S. International and concludes with the Holiday Bowl tournament Dec. 27-28. . . . Senior forward Rod Hawkins has been bothered by the flu and Coach Jim Brandenburg said he might not play in tonight’s game.