Aztecs Snap Losing Streak With 69-61 Win Over Wyoming

The longest losing streak of this or any other Jim Brandenburg-coached team came to an end Monday night as San Diego State defeated Wyoming, 69-61, in front of 3,740 at the San Diego Sports Arena.

The victory not only stopped the Aztecs’ losing streak at 5 games and pulled them out of last place in the Western Athletic Conference, but it ended the longest such run of failure by any team in Brandenburg’s 13 seasons as a college coach.

That the victory came against Wyoming--the school Brandenburg coached for 9 seasons and led to three WAC titles--seemed to matter less to Brandenburg than the fact that the victory came at all.

“Really, the only thing I was worried about with our 5-game losing streak was not that we’re playing Wyoming but just that they were the next game on our schedule,” Brandenburg said. “It was really important for us to be successful for the next game on our schedule, and I’m just really happy about that.”

The Aztecs broke their losing steak with balanced scoring. Junior guard Michael Best had 16 points and 7 rebounds. Senior center Mitch McMullen also had 16 points, and senior forward Sam Johnson added 14 points and 7 rebounds.

The importance of breaking the losing streak seemed to overshadow the emotional edge that marked last year’s SDSU-Wyoming games. Those 3 contests--all won by Wyoming--were characterized by the Wyoming players’ sometimes bitter feelings directed at Brandenburg, who left for SDSU after leading the Cowboys to the final 16 of the 1987 NCAA tournament.

But with high NBA draft choices Eric Leckner and Fennis Dembo gone and only one player from that team still with the Cowboys--senior guard Reggie Fox--that emotional motivation was missing.

“It wasn’t the same as it was last year,” McMullen said. “But it’s a still a win in the WAC, and that’s what is important right now. It’s great for Brandenburg, but I know I didn’t look at it as any big emotional game. It wasn’t like going up against Leckner.”

The feeling was the same on the Wyoming side.

“Last year, it was more of a big rivalry-type of game because we had all the team back he left,” said Fox, who led all scorers with 19 points. “This year it didn’t mean as much. It was just another game, and we needed this game bad.”

The Cowboys needed it for the same reason as the Aztecs--last place was not where they wanted to be. But that’s just where the Cowboys are after their fifth loss in 6 games, dropping them to 10-10 overall and 2-4 in the WAC.

The Aztecs, who started their WAC schedule with victories over Colorado State and Air Force, then lost their next 5 conference games. With Monday’s victory, they overtook the Cowboys with a 3-5 conference mark, 9-9 overall.

It was the first time in more than 3 weeks, the Aztecs looked and played like a healthy team. All 12 players were available for the entire game for the first time since the Jan. 7 game against Air Force, which was the Aztecs’ last victory (64-61).

And it was some of the recently wounded who did the most damage.

McMullen, who has been slowed by a bruised Achilles’ tendon, scored 7 points in the first 11:16 as the Aztecs raced to their biggest lead of the first half, 20-12.

McMullen’s last basket came on a layin, ending a 10-0 run that wiped out the Cowboys’ only lead of the half, 12-10, with 14:17 left.

Junior guard Tony Ross, whose sprained ankle forced him to miss a 65-62 loss at Hawaii Thursday, made 2 3-pointers 51 seconds apart in the final 1:21 of the half to give the Aztecs a 34-30 lead at the break. He finished with 9 points.

The field goals were Ross’ first points in 4 games. Ross, the team’s leading scorer in each of his first 2 seasons, had not scored since an 80-61 loss at Utah Jan. 14. The scoreless streak came after Ross had scored in his first 71 games as an Aztec.

And senior forward Shawn Bell, playing with a mouth guard after losing a tooth in a collision during practice Saturday with assistant coach Charles Bradley, had a team-high 9 rebounds and 8 points.

“(The team has) been performing for about 4 1/2 weeks at less than 100%,” Brandenburg said. “Not only in games, but we have had no quality practice time to get ourselves any better. We have been just a walking-wounded, getting from one game to the next.”