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City Rivalry Back to Former Result : San Diego State Routs USIU After Losing Game Last Season

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Times Staff Writer

After a one-game departure, the San Diego State-United States International rivalry is back on familiar terms. The Aztecs are back coasting and the Gulls are back wondering what went wrong after another lopsided loss.

SDSU ran off to a 23-point first-half lead and went on to defeat the Gulls, 103-68, Thursday night in front of 1,718 in the San Diego Sports Arena.

The game had no resemblence to USIU’s 86-81 victory of the season before.

“We just stunk,” said Gary Zarecky, USIU coach. “It’s humiliating. We let some people down, and I’m tired of that.”

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The defeat was the Gulls’ 10th in the past 11 games against the Aztecs. Their only victory in that stretch was the victory over San Diego State. That victory was the low point of SDSU’s worst season, but it was not a sign of good things to come for USIU.

This game was the kind of one-sided contest that the teams have been accustomed to playing.

Five SDSU players scored in double figures, led by Tony Ross, who had a game-high 27 points before he fouled out with 7:13 left.

Bryan Williams had season highs of 22 points and 8 assists, and Mitch McMullen, who was replaced as the starting center for the second straight game by Sam Johnson, had 18 points and a game-high 9 rebounds.

USIU (2-4) was led by Rade Milutonivic’s 14 points and 7 rebounds. Russ Heicke, who was averaging 23.4 points per game, was held to 9 points on 1-of-8 shooting from the field.

“The coach told me not to worry about scoring, just play defense,” said Rodney Hawkins, the SDSU forward assigned to guard Heicke. “And that’s exactly what I did.”

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Hawkins was one of three holdovers from the team last season that became the first SDSU team to lose to the Gulls since 1965.

“We wanted to make up for last year,” Hawkins said. “You could see before the game they were feeling pretty good, but we did our talking on the court.”

The memory of last season’s loss did seem to infuse the players with a bit of that rivalry spirit so missing at most SDSU games.

The players got feisty--in separate first-half incidents, Caldin Rogers and Ross had to be restrained by teammates from going after Heicke and Steve Smith after they were fouled. There were 65 fouls called, 36 against USIU.

SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg rode the officials long and hard. And the crowd, although typically sparse, did show signs of life, even chanting “air ball” when the Gulls were at the free-throw line.

“Whenever you have cross-city rivals, you a little of that venom,” Brandenburg said. “All those things are building in the system.”

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But little in the first few minutes gave an indication of the blowout that was to come as the Gulls stayed with the Aztecs (3-3) until a 9-9 tie at 14:50.

But soon the game turned decisively in the Aztecs’ favor.

SDSU scored 11 consecutive points to take a 20-9 lead at 10:47 and stretched the lead to 26-11 at 8:25. The Gulls went 7:51 without a field goal before Heicke made his only shot--a three-point shot from the left wing with 8:06 left in the half.

By then the Gulls had abandoned their diamond-and-one defense with Charles Redding chasing Ross, and foul trouble had begun to hamper Heicke and center Mike Sterner. The rout was on.

USIU did draw within 26-18 at 6:54. But SDSU outscored the Gulls, 21-6, to take its biggest lead of the half at 47-24 with 2:09 remaining.

Ross had 18 points as the Aztecs led at the half, 50-29.

The Gulls never recovered and SDSU stretched its lead to as much as 101-63 with 1:22 to play.

“It kills us to lose like this,” Heicke said. “People in the city don’t even know who we are. This is our one chance each year to get some recognition, and we play like this.”

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