SDSU Falls to Utah in WAC Debut

Coach Jim Brandenburg had warned his inexperienced and undermanned San Diego State basketball players about the difficulties of playing in the Western Athletic Conference.

He emphasized to them how hard it is to win on the road, how the top teams might contend with the best in any conference and how if they didn’t give their best every night, it could be a long season.

Those were just words. The Aztecs encountered the real thing Thursday night, and it was all Brandenburg had promised and more.

Utah simply overwhelmed SDSU, 83-56, in a game that had the crowd of 9,293 at the Huntsman Center heading for the exits with eight minutes to play. Escape was not so easy for the Aztecs.

The lesson included a 15-minute postgame talk from Brandenburg.

“I didn’t like what I saw,” he said. “I didn’t like the effort. I didn’t like the execution. We took an old-fashioned licking on the boards.”

The Utes (9-3, 1-0 in the WAC) placed six players in double figures (led by junior forward Watkins Singletary with 16 points), made only 6 turnovers and had a 46-28 rebounding edge.

It was the kind of loss that left the Aztecs (6-6, 0-1) wondering what awaits them in their next 15 conference games, starting Saturday night at undefeated Brigham Young.

Brandenburg was so upset with his team’s sluggish start that he called four timeouts in the first half and added another for emphasis with 1:53 to play.

“If I had 100 timeouts, I would have called 99 in the first five minutes,” said a calm but obviously angry Brandenburg.

Although he did not single out players for criticism, he did not hide his displeasure.

“I wish I had a year of eligibility left,” he said.

The 27-point loss was the Aztecs’ worst of the season, topping the 76-53 thrashing by the University of San Diego Dec. 19. That game, like this one, followed a long layoff after an impressive victory.

“It would have to say the 10-day layoff had an adverse effect on us,” Brandenburg said.

All the momentum SDSU might have gained in winning the Holiday Bowl tournament championship against Texas Tech seemed to vanish in the 10-day break.

“We took the time off and didn’t come back the same team,” said Tony Ross, who was held to 7 shots and 12 points. “We’ve got to work hard to get back where we were.”

This was a night almost everything went wrong for SDSU, beginning with a personnel shortage.

The Aztecs have only 10 scholarship players available, a situation exacerbated by foul problems and an injury to Juan Espinoza.

Espinoza, the team’s sixth man, was limited to eight first-half minutes because of a flareup of his congenital back condition. The Aztecs might have been able to overcome the loss had forward Rodney Hawkins and centers Sam Johnson and Mitch McMullen not gotten into early foul trouble.

Hawkins, who still led the team with 13 points and 8 rebounds, and McMullen fouled out midway through the second half. Johnson managed to nurse his way through the game with four.

But that still left Brandenburg playing some unusual lineups, including one that featured three guards, Johnson and freshman center Neil Steinly. Steinly, who had played only 31 minutes in four games, played 12 minutes against the Utes.

“We got in terrible foul trouble, and we just had to make do,” Brandenburg said. “I’m telling you we’re going to play better basketball on the road. I’m disappointed we didn’t start well on the road.”

The Aztecs have lost 15 consecutive road games over three seasons. Brandenburg has been charged with just two in his first season at SDSU, and it appeared for a few minutes Thursday that the Aztecs might play well enough to break that streak.

Ross, the team’s best and streakiest shooter, made his first shot from the field--an 18-foot jumper, and that helped the Aztecs take a 6-3 lead in the first three minutes--and wake up the Utes.

Utah went on a 16-1 run over the next seven minutes to take a 19-7 lead. The Aztecs did rally to within 20-15 with 9:46 left in the half when Ross made his second shot, a 20-footer from the top of the key.

The Utes then went on a 12-1 spurt to regain control at 32-16 with 6:08 to play in the half and led, 40-25, at halftime.

Ross was held to two shots in the half as the Utes used the man-to-man defense of guards Tommy Connor and Chris Fulton to deny him the ball. Fulton was a late substitute for Gale Gondrezick, out with tendinitis in his knees.

“The only way you’re going to stop a great shooter like Ross is too keep him from getting his hands on the ball,” Fulton said. “When the coach told me I was going to guard Ross, that’s all I thought about.”

If the Aztecs had any thoughts of still making a game of it, they were erased in a 10-0 Utah streak to open the second half.

“This (Utah) is supposed to be the fifth-place team in the WAC?” Hawkins said, still dripping from his shower.

It was a sobering moment of postgame, and early-season, reality.

Aztec Notes

Utah shot 51.7% (31 of 61), only the third time the Aztecs had allowed a team to shoot better than 50% this season. SDSU shot 44.0% (22 of 50). . . . The Aztecs continue to have their problems on the free-throw line. They made 7 of 19 attempts. Sam Johnson was 1 of 5. . . . Utah forward Roger Middleton, a 6-foot 4-inch freshman from Tustin High School, has quit the team, Coach Lynn Archibald said. Middleton had not played in any of Utah’s first 11 games. He is the second freshman to quit this season. Ken Crawford, a 6-6 forward from San Francisco, left during Christmas break.