Despite Bad Shooting, SDSU Reaches Tournament Final

Southwest Texas State matched the weather by shooting with an icy touch Thursday in the first game of the University of Alabama-Birmingham men’s basketball tournament. That was a blessing for San Diego State, which did not exactly heat things up, either.

While the temperature outside dropped into the teens, the Aztecs (44.6% from the field) and Bobcats (32%, 25% in the first half) froze out UAB Arena. It added up to a sloppy, 67-53 victory for SDSU, which will play UAB for the tournament championship tonight at 6:30 PST.

Alabama Birmingham defeated Penn State in Thursday’s second game, 80-57.

It is the first time since the 1983-84 season that the Aztecs (6-3) have made it to the title game of an in-season tournament other than their own. But SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg admitted it was not an attractive way to make it.

“I think we allocated only so much energy for this game and were looking toward the next game,” Brandenburg said. “We got a whole bunch of shots, and we forced them (Bobcats) into some bad shots, but we weren’t concentrating. We really lacked concentration. So all those little easy shots weren’t going in.”

Enough shots fell early that the Aztecs took a 10-0 lead and never trailed. The Bobcats (2-5) did not score until six minutes into the game. They cut the Aztecs’ lead to 12-10, then watched San Diego run off 11 consecutive points and build a 23-10 advantage.

The teams traded baskets every now and then for the rest of the half, and San Diego held a 33-20 lead at halftime.

Southwest Texas had a brief flurry early in the second half, cutting the Aztecs’ lead to 45-41 with 12 minutes left. But a 14-2 SDSU run made it 59-43.

Southwest Texas Coach Harry Larrabee said the opening minutes set the off-key tone for his team.

“Anytime it takes you five or six minutes to score your first basket, you know you’re going to have a difficult time,” Larrabee said. “San Diego’s size was an awful big factor. They have some real horses around the goal.

“Not only did their size hurt us on the glass (San Diego outrebounded the Bobcats, 49-33), but they seemed to bother our shots an awful lot. That may have been one of the reasons for our poor shooting.”

The Aztecs did not have as simple an explanation. SDSU blew a number of easy layups, including a pair of missed dunks by junior Shawn Jamison, who still led the team with 19 points and nine rebounds.

“Basically, our offense is to move the ball around, make about eight passes and then look for the shot,” Jamison said. “We were just coming down and making one or two passes and then shooting. That’s not our game. We played their game, really.

“The game to me seemed a little bit boring. They were off on their shooting, and so were we. We just couldn’t get into the flow.”

Brandenburg said there were a few positives.