Aztecs Don’t Look So Hot From Afar, Lose to BYU

One game statistic set against one season trend told everything about what happened to the San Diego State basketball team in a 63-60 loss to Brigham Young Saturday night.

BYU forced the Aztecs into taking a season-high 25 three-point shots. And the Aztecs entered the game making only 33.1% from that range.

They made only 10 of them Saturday and lost the Western Athletic Conference game in front of 5,750, the largest crowd at the San Diego Sports Arena this season.

Even that statistic is a bit misleading. Three Aztecs--Vernon Thompson, Arthur Massey and Michael Hudson--combined to shoot seven of 14 from three-point range. The few remaining three-point baskets and the majority of the misses belonged to senior guard Michael Best.

Best was three of 11 on three-point tries and just four of 14 overall. That extended his three-game three-point shooting slump to seven for 26.

“And he’s our best three-point shooter,” SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg said.

The BYU strategy was simple, one most teams have employed this year. Bottle up the Aztecs’ inside threats--forward Shawn Jamison and center Marty Dow--and dare them to hit from the outside.

It couldn’t have worked better.

Jamison, the team’s leading scorer at 16.1 points per game, was held to 11 points, his second lowest total of the season. Dow also scored 11. But the pair combined for only 13 shots.

That left it to the outside shooters--primarily Best--to make up the difference. But Best, who played almost the entire game after sitting out the first four minutes when Brandenburg changed his starting lineup for the first time this season, never got it going.

“We packed it inside and just gave them some of those outside shots,” said BYU guard Kevin Santiago, whose two free throws with 15 seconds left provided the winning cushion. “Some of the shots Massey and Hudson made surprised us. But Best was the one we wanted to stop. We wanted to get up in (his face) every time.”

This was a game the Aztecs (9-6, 1-1) had a chance to win but found a way to let get away.

They led by as much as 12 points midway through the first half and were ahead, 60-57, after Jamison tipped in a Massey miss with 2:24 left. But but those were the last points the Aztecs would score.

Senior forward Andy Toolson made a driving layup with 1:52 left for the last of his game-high 16 points to cut the SDSU lead to 60-59. Jamison then fouled BYU forward Mark Durrant as Durrant attempted to tip a miss with 1:08 left, and he converted the one-and-one to give the Cougars a 61-60 lead.

The Aztecs still had a chance, but Best missed a three-point attempt with 30 seconds to play, and BYU guard Marty Haws rebounded. The Aztecs then fouled Santiago, who converted the one-and-one with 15 seconds left for a 63-60 lead.

Best’s attempt at a tying three-pointer with six seconds left bounded off the rim, and Durrant rebounded to end the game.

What made the loss so frustrating for the Aztecs was that it looked as if they were going to run BYU (10-3, 1-1) out early, streaking to a 12-point lead at 25-13 with 8:09 left in the half. The Aztecs were opportunistic from the beginning, turning six BYU turnovers into 12 points.

But no sooner had they build the lead than the Cougars switched to an effective press and washed it away. They went on a 12-2 run that took only 2:33 to make it 27-25 with 5:15 left in the half.

The game remained close the rest of the half, as the Aztecs never led by more than five, and their own misjudgments allowed BYU to close to within 35-34 at halftime.

Leading, 35-32, and in possession of the ball for a last shot, the Aztecs apparently did not communicate Bradenburg’s instructions to hold for it. With 15 seconds left, Dow attempted a 10-foot fadeaway jumper along the right baseline. The shot missed, and then the Aztecs compounded their mistake by fouling Durrant on the rebound. Durrant converted a one-and-one with 14 seconds left to draw the Cougars within one.

The Aztecs turned the ball over on the inbounds play when guard Rodney Jones stepped over the endline but were spared further embarrassment when BYU missed a chance at a final shot.

Aztec Notes

San Diego State will take to the road for the first time since a 91-46 loss Dec. 22 at Alabama Birmingham when they travel to Wyoming Thursday and Air Force Saturday on their first Western Athletic Conference trip. . . . The game marked the return of former assistant Charles Bradley to San Diego. Bradley left his job as an assistant at SDSU to join Roger Reid’s staff at BYU.