Beauty Lies In Victory for Aztecs

Artistry, at least for now, is not what this San Diego State basketball team is about.

Five games into a season with only one returning starter and eight new players, the Aztecs are a little ragged around the edges. But Monday night the beauty was in the result, not the performance.

The Aztecs defeated Texas Tech, 51-50, in a nonconference game in front of 1,797 at the San Diego Sports Arena. It was anything but a picture-book victory.

The Aztecs shot 36.4% (16 of 44) from the field, went the final 9:25 without a field goal and needed two free throws by junior forward Shawn Jamison to go ahead with 16 seconds left.

“We found a way to win,” SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg said, “and that is what counts.”

But even the free throws were not-so-pretty. The first attempt rolled precariously on the back of the rim, almost coming to a stop, before falling through the hoop. The second one bounced not nearly as much, but enough, to keep Jamison guessing, before it, too, dropped through for the last of his game-high 18 points.

“I wasn’t sure about that first one,” said Jamison, who also had a game-high nine rebounds. “I felt better about the second one.”

But the game was not over. The Aztecs (3-2) still had to hold off a final Texas Tech possession before they could claim their third victory in a row, their first against an NCAA Division I team.

The Red Raiders (3-2) inbounded the ball in front of their bench with eight seconds to play and tried to get an open shot for guard Jerry Mason. But he was tightly guarded by the Aztecs and his off-balance, turn-around, 20-foot shot with two seconds left barely made it halfway to the basket.

Maybe it was fitting that the Aztecs won the game with defense and at the free-throw line. Because, so far, that is what has been keeping them in most games.

This time they held Texas Tech to 37.5% shooting from the field (18 of 48) and outscored the Red Raiders, 18-9, at the line. The difference was SDSU’s 18 of 22 free-throw shooting as their only four points in the final 9:25 came at the line.

The tight finish was not what the Aztecs appeared headed for in the early part of the first half. They started as if they were going to make an easy night of it against a traveling Texas Tech team that was playing its third game in four nights in a city 2,000 miles away from its last stop Saturday night in Clarksville, Tenn.

SDSU took its first lead at 7-4 just 2:35 into the game on a three-point play by center Marty Dow and stretched its advantage to 21-10 with 10:02 left in the first half.

But then the Aztecs went into another of the scoring dry spells that have marked their early-season games. They went 5:41 without a point, missing nine shots and committing three turnovers while the Red Raiders scored 11 points in a row to tie the game at 21-21 with 5:30 to play in the half. Nine of those points came on three three-point field goals.

The Aztecs awoke just in time to reverse the rally by scoring the next seven points to take a 28-21 lead with 2:05 remaining and held a 30-23 edge at halftime.

They started the second half again as if they were going to close out the Red Raiders, taking a 44-31 lead on a three-point play by Jamison with 13:09 left. But, as has been their custom, the Aztecs suddenly went cold from the field.

They scored only one field goal the rest of the way--Jamison’s dunk with 9:25 to play--as Texas Tech came back to go ahead, 50-48, on guard Derex Butts’ driving four-foot jumper with 2:16 left. Jamison, who scored the Aztecs’ final 10 points, made the first of two free-throw attempts with 1:52 remaining to draw SDSU within, 50-49.

The Aztecs got the ball back after forward Steve Miles missed an eight-footer with 50 seconds left and guard Arthur Massey rebounded.

Jamison missed a reverse layup with 20 seconds left. But the Aztecs got another chance when Jamison was tied up on the rebound with 18 seconds left and the alternate possession arrow went in favor of SDSU. They again tried to set up a play for Jamison and this time he was fouled by Miles with 16 seconds to play. But after missing two of his previous four free throws, Jamison dropped two through.

“I just told myself, ‘Make these and we have the game,’ ” Jamison said. “And that’s what I did.”