Aztecs Stay in a Spiral : College basketball: Brigham Young hands SDSU worst loss of season, 89-59.

With the Winter Olympics still a couple of days away, someone might want to check the status of the U.S. luge team.

It doesn’t seem possible that there is a group out there that can go downhill any faster than the San Diego State basketball team.

In an 89-59 loss Thursday to Brigham Young in front of 2,408 at the Sports Arena, the Aztecs suffered their worst loss of the season, surpassing a 27-point defeat Dec. 7 against Texas.

They followed the same dog-eared script that has carried them to a 13-game losing streak and into the vicinity as the worst record--5-25--in school history:

Their offense was spotty, their free-throw shooting was abominable, and their defense was, well, offensive.

It also didn’t help that center Joe McNaull got into early foul trouble, played only 14 minutes and had six points and three rebounds. As a point of reference, BYU point guard Nathan Call also had three rebounds.

The first-place Cougars (16-3, 7-2) made 11 of 18 three-point attempts (61%), including four from guard Mark Heslop. Forward Kevin Nixon, who led BYU with 19 points, added three more. The 11 three-pointers tied a BYU record and was one short of the Western Athletic Conference record.

Overall, BYU shot 55%.

“Some things are very apparent,” SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg said. “BYU is pretty good, and they shoot well from the perimeter. I could not convince our guys to go out and challenge them in three-point territory.

“After they make a few, you would think we’d close the distance and make them work to get a shot off.”

Something else very apparent is that the Aztecs (2-18, 0-8) aren’t even competitive. They have lost in double digits in each of their eight WAC games. Maybe worse, they haven’t even led once in the second half of any WAC game.

Anything different about this loss than the previous 17?

“Not really,” said Tony Clark, who had nine points and four rebounds. “We went through scoring droughts, as usual. We again didn’t hit the open shot--myself more than not. It was pretty much the same story.”

SDSU trailed by 12 at halftime and then managed only one field goal--and four points total--in the first 4:19 of the second half. By then, BYU led, 48-32.