Aztecs Get Caught Up In Old Ways

Too many runs. Not enough spurts. Or something like that.

It has happened before to the San Diego State men’s basketball team, and it happened again Sunday night against a well-run Richmond team during a 78-68 loss in front of 1,782 in the San Diego Sports Arena.

Trailing 41-29 at the half, SDSU (0-2) opened the second half with seven consecutive points to inch back into the game. Richmond (1-1) didn’t even score until Jim Springer made two free throws 5 1/2 minutes into the second half.

The game lurched along, SDSU crawling back to within three points several times. But the Aztecs could neither tie nor take a lead. The Spiders, who had lost to UC Santa Barbara by seven points in their season opener Friday, gained their first victory of the 1991-92 season.

“Runs,” SDSU sophomore forward Courtie Miller said afterward, shaking his head. “How long have we been telling you guys that? Ever since I’ve been here.

“We may be young, but we have to make plays. We didn’t; they did.”

Miller saw several things in Richmond, a team that has made the NCAA tournament in four of the past five years.

“They’re the kind of team we want to be, eventually,” said Miller, who finished with 18 points. “They run their plays, set their sets. . . . I see that as our future. We have to be that way to be successful. That’s how they’ve beat the giants like Syracuse (in the NCAA tournament last season). The only way to do that is to execute.”

Miller said Richmond is “by far” the best-executing team he has seen in his two years of eligibility at SDSU.

“They don’t have the type of athletes that North Carolina (which SDSU played last season) has,” Miller said. “If North Carolina had a breakdown, they could free-lance one-on-one. These guys, outside of (Kenny) Wood and (Curtis) Blair, don’t have those kind of athletes.”

But the Spiders were able to race out to the lead and then subdue a comeback. Wood, a 6-foot-6 junior forward, had 23 points and 12 rebounds and Blair, a 6-3 senior guard, had 15.

Joe McNaull led SDSU with 22 points and eight rebounds and Keith Balzer, fighting the effects of a chest cold and lingering knee tendinitis, had 17 points and eight rebounds. Point guard Virgil Smith had 11 assists.

Dick Tarrant, beginning his 11th season as Richmond coach, was just happy to be the winner. But he wasn’t as appreciative as Miller of his team’s execution.

“We’ve been out here five days--we’re lucky to get a split,” Tarrant said. “We didn’t execute particularly well, we didn’t shoot particularly well, but we got the win.

“‘We can shoot better than 45% (actually 47%, 26 of 55) from the field and 65% (21 of 32) from the free-throw line.”

The Spiders were without their starting center, 6-10 Jim Shields, who is in Virginia continuing to recover from surgery for a detached retina in each eye. Tarrant figures he will return in two-to-five weeks.

Because of Shields’ absence, Tarrant said, the Spiders went to a zone defense in the second half.

“Without him, we’re very thin,” Tarrant said. “I was worried about kids fouling out, quite frankly.”

Nobody did, although two Richmond players finished with four fouls.

Richmond finished the first half on a 14-4 run that put the Aztecs in a hole from which they never recovered.

“Once again, we played one- and two-pass basketball,” SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg said. “We were forcing shots. We had a lot of slippage. We just played poorly early.”

The Aztecs made only 43% of their field goal attempts--23 of 54.

“We were down by 12 at halftime and all of a sudden we start passing and finding the open man,” Brandenburg said. “When we start doing things like that, we look like a good basketball team. For about 12 minutes in the second half, we brought ourselves up to a level where we can play with anybody. Then we broke down defensively.”

And Richmond didn’t.

“They gave a really good view of a team like us,” Miller said. “They have no super big names, but they can go out and compete on a national scene. They’re a prototype for us. When we made a run at them, they remained calm. Sometimes we get caught up in the mood.

“I’m proud of our guys coming back, but I think it’s about time we kick it into gear and not be the Cardiac kids forever.

Said Brandenburg: “Had we put two halves together, it would have been a great contest.”

Aztec Notes

SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg was whistled for a technical foul with 1:52 left in the first half and the Aztecs trailing, 36-27. A foul was called on Nelson Stewart and Brandenburg protested, earing the technical from Craig Peterson. “Usually, one bad call makes for another,” Brandenburg said. . . . Former NBA guard Dennis Johnson was in attendance and scouting for the Boston Celtics Sunday night.