Aztecs Suspend Bryan Williams, Lose to Utah

The loss of playmaker Bryan Williams was at least three points too much for San Diego State’s basketball team to overcome Saturday.

Shortly before the game against Utah at the San Diego Sports Arena, Coach Jim Brandenburg announced that Williams had been suspended for the remainder of the season after being arrested Tuesday for petty theft. Without the man who makes their offense go, the Aztecs lost a hard-fought, 80-77 decision in front of 4,077 and a regional television audience.

Williams, 23, a senior from St. Bernard High School in Playa del Rey, was apprehended at the SDSU bookstore and booked for an appearance in San Diego Municipal Court March 20.

Sgt. Ed Gilbert of the campus police said Williams “stole some textbooks” from the bookstore. Gilbert said he didn’t know many books were involved. He said Williams was caught by a plainclothes security guard hired by Aztec Shops, which runs the bookstore.

Brandenburg said he wasn’t told of Williams’ arrest until just before Friday’s workout.

“He practiced with us, because I didn’t have all the details,” Brandenburg said, “Once I checked it out, I took the appropriate action.”

Williams could not be reached for comment, but Brandenburg said, “He took it very hard. He was very, very remorseful. Basically, he’s a good person, and it’s just a shame this happened.”

This was Williams’ second suspension in a little more than a week. He sat out the Air Force game in Colorado Springs Feb. 4 because of a curfew violation. But he was restored to good standing for the Brigham Young game here Thursday night and was instrumental in the Aztecs’ 89-74 victory. He played one of his best games of the season, setting up countless fast breaks and contributing 13 points and five assists.

A transfer from Cerritos College, Williams had started 46 of SDSU’s 50 games in the past two seasons. He averaged 9.7 points and 5.3 assists last season and 8.7 points and 4.8 assists this season.

With Williams’ college career over, Brandenburg moved Michael Best from shooting guard to point guard and inserted Tony Ross in Best’s place. Rodney Jones and Kevin Honaker also filled in at the point, Jones for 14 minutes and Honaker for 2, and both were involved in key plays that went against the Aztecs down the stretch.

With 1:44 to play and Utah holding a 71-68 lead, Jones was called for a 5-second violation after failing to advance the ball while being closely guarded outside the small line near the sideline.

“I was about to go to Tony (Ross) for a three-pointer when I heard the whistle,” Jones said. “I really don’t think I had the ball for 5 seconds.”

Ross already had made two three-point shots and was to add a third later. Another at that point would have tied the score. Instead, the Aztecs had to foul in desperation, and two free throws each by Josh Grant and Jimmy Madison ran Utah’s margin to 75-68 with 1:09 left.

Ross rallied the Aztecs with a rare four-point play (he was fouled by Jon Hansen while connecting from three-point range), and the Utes helped further by missing five of their last six free throw attempts.

Given this run of breaks, topped by Boo Singletary’s two missed free throws with 7 seconds remaining, the Aztecs trailed by only three points and had one last chance to send the game into overtime. When they called a timeout 2 seconds later, Brandenburg set up a play for Honaker.

Honaker doesn’t play much, but he had made four of seven three-point tries this season, so Brandenburg considered him the best bet, with Ross the alternate.

The Utes, figuring that the ball would go to Ross, left Honaker wide open. It looked good as it arched toward the basket, but the ball caromed off the rim as the final buzzer sounded. When Honaker saw it bounce away, he fell to the floor.

“It was so close,” Brandenburg said. “I really believe that if Kevin had made that shot, we would have won the ballgame.”

As it was, SDSU fell to 10-12, 4-8 in the Western Athletic Conference. Utah improved to 14-11 and 5-5.

Utah Coach Lynn Archibald didn’t hesitate to say that his team had benefited from Williams’ absence.

“Any time you lose your floor leader, it’s bound to hurt you,” Archibald said. “He handles the ball and penetrates exceptionally well.

“It’s really a shame that a thing like that happened.”

Grant, Utah’s 6-9 freshman, came into the game with only an 8.8-point average, but sank eight of 11 shots, including four of six three-pointers, to tie his career high of 24 points. He also topped both teams in rebounds with 12.

“Their zone defense gave me a lot of good shots,” Grant said. “Apparently the word is out that the Utes can’t play against a zone. Today we did a little better than in the past.”

For SDSU, Mitch McMullen had his second 18-point game in a row after being hampered for almost a month with an Achilles’ tendon injury. He also grabbed 10 rebounds.

The Aztecs’ four other starters also scored in double figures, but their marksmanship left much to be desired. They shot only 40.4% from the floor compared to the Utes’ 55.1%.

Brandenburg summed up this deficiency by saying, “You’re not going to win many games when you’ve got guys shooting four for 12 (Shawn Bell), four for 11 (Best) and five for 12 (McMullen).”

Also, the Aztecs played with far less emotion than they had against BYU, and to top things off, they couldn’t cope with Grant either inside or outside.