Aztecs Catch Division II Riverside

Coach Jim Brandenburg talked with pride Thursday of what his San Diego State basketball team had accomplished in the final five minutes of a 67-61 comeback victory over UC Riverside.

He had to. Anything else in the game might have been beyond words.

The Aztecs (2-2) had to rally past the NCAA Division II Highlanders (2-1) by scoring 16 of the final 18 points in nonconference home opener in front of 1,931 at the San Diego Sports Arena.

“I was really concerned if we were going to get a wake-up call,” Brandenburg said. “We didn’t get started until the five-minute mark.

“But I was really pleased with what our players did then. It was the first time we played like a team. The bench was up shouting, everyone was in the game.”

Until then, the Aztecs appeared to be in serious danger of losing to a non-Division I team for the first time in 10 seasons. They trailed, 38-33, at the half and were behind by as much as 10 in the second half. And Riverside was missing its leading scorer--senior forward Chris Ceballos--who broke a finger on his shooting hand in practice last week.

With Ceballos out, guards Reggie Howard and Mike Ritter tried to make up for his absence by scoring from the outside. The pair split 28 points, 18 coming on three-point shots.

The Aztecs trailed, 58-48, with 7:57 to play but came back to win by scoring 13 points in a row after Riverside took a 59-51 with 5:52 left. The streak gave SDSU a 64-59 lead with 1:52 remaining, the go-ahead points coming on a 17-footer by guard Rodney Jones that made it 61-59 with 3:05 left.

It was the first SDSU lead since the first six minutes of the game.

Offensive inefficiency was again at the root of the Aztecs’ problems, but their strong shooting from the free-throw line (23 of 29) helped keep them in the game.

The Aztecs were led by junior forward Shawn Jamison’s 13 points.