Aztecs Get Banged Up at Air Force : Basketball: Team in auto accident, then routed, 65-47.

As if things weren’t bad enough for the San Diego State basketball team, three Aztecs and an assistant coach were taken to a hospital late Friday after the team was involved in a four-vehicle accident.

Everyone was released in time to participate in what was probably the lowest moment of Coach Jim Brandenburg’s five-year SDSU tenure, a thoroughly humiliating, nationally televised 65-47 loss at Air Force. And, they were shaken up enough to wonder what else is going to torment them in this coldest of winters.

“It gets to the point now where when something like (the accident) happens, you make sure everybody checks out OK and then go back to your room and laugh,” Tony Clark said. “Because it’s one incident after another.

“You hope the magnitude of these doesn’t get any larger.”

Virgil Smith, Ray Barefield and Terrence Hamilton were taken to Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs and assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr. and one of the team’s radio broadcasters, XTRA’s Brad Cesmat, were taken to St. Francis Hospital, also in Colorado Springs.

Smith suffered a cervical and upper shoulder strain; Barefield suffered a minor lower back strain; Hamilton suffered a bruised kidney; Harrick suffered a minor concussion and Cesmat suffered a whiplash and a sore lower back.

Smith was able to start Saturday, but he wasn’t the only uncomfortable Aztec. Joe McNaull complained of a sore neck at the team’s shootaround Saturday afternoon, Courtie Miller’s back and neck were sore, Robert Ringo said his back was stiff . . . the list went on.

None felt any better by the end of the night. Air Force, in front of a crowd of 3,652, thoroughly dominated SDSU from start to finish and handed the Aztecs (2-17, 0-7) their 12th consecutive loss. The 47 points were SDSU’s fewest in a game this season.

Ugly? The Aztecs went through a first-half stretch in which they managed only four points in 6:38, then opened the second half by scoring only one field goal in the first 7:50.

With 10:54 left in the game, the Aztecs were shooting a miserable 28.6% from the field. Air Force, a perennial last-place WAC team, led by as many as 21, 51-30, with about 11 minutes to play.

The result was important because now it looks like the Aztecs will not qualify for the Western Athletic Conference post-season tournament. For the first time, the ninth-place team will not be invited and, if the Falcons (7-12, 1-6) and Aztecs split their regular-season series and tie for last place, Air Force goes on the basis of a higher winning percentage against non-conference Division I opponents. Air Force is 2-5; SDSU is 2-10.

But for a couple of hours Friday, the Aztecs weren’t thinking of any of this. The accident occurred about 10:40 p.m. as the team was returning to their hotel from dinner. As is customary on trips, the Aztecs were traveling in three vans and a Cadillac.

As the convoy entered the left-turn lane to go north on Interstate 25, a Ford Bronco driven by Christopher Bjorlow of Colorado Springs, cut in front of the van driven by Harrick and hit the van driven by Haines, which had stopped. Haines’ van bumped into the Cadillac, driven by assistant coach Jimmy Williams. Harrick’s van then hit the Bronco from behind, which then hit Haines’ van a second time.

“We didn’t hear a screech or anything else,” Haines said. “We felt the impact, and then a fraction of a second later felt another impact.”

Said Harrick: “I didn’t see any brake lights. I just saw this big huge Bronco right in my face.”

Smith, Harrick and Cesmat were placed on stretchers and transported to the hospital.

“I didn’t think the impact would be as vicious as it was,” Harrick said. “I was scared.”

According to Lt. Bill Way of the Colorado Springs police department, Bjorlow, 27, was arrested at the scene Friday night for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Harrick and Haines were each ticketed for not wearing seat belts.

The accident was just one more kick in the teeth in a season filled with them. Life is difficult enough for the Aztecs, but life on the road--especially this week--has become almost unbearable.

At each stop, the Aztecs pick up the newspapers only to find themselves getting blasted.

The day of the Colorado State game, a local newspaper entitled a preview story, “Rams Won’t Take Lowly Aztecs for Granted.”

The same day, another paper ran a story entitled, “Brandenburg at Crossroad.”

And the next day, yet another paper ran a story under the headline, “Brandenburg’s Dream Now a Nightmare.”

As if that didn’t sting enough, Brandenburg spent part of Saturday saying goodby to a long-time college friend who is dying of cancer. And that came after staying with Smith in the hospital until about 2:30 a.m. Saturday.

It hasn’t been easy.

“We got no luck,” Smith said.

Smith scared the Aztecs the most Friday, because he lay motionless in the van until the ambulance arrived.

“My neck was hurting--I knew something was wrong,” he said Saturday afternoon.

He then paused for a moment as he thought of the game the Aztecs would play later.

“We gotta go through that intersection again?” he asked Haines.

The answer was no. But unfortunately for Smith and the Aztecs, the lonely stretch of road that is taking them through the 1991-92 season continues for about five more weeks.