Hawaii Lays It on the Aztecs : Basketball: Rainbows win, 66-58, and coach rips SDSU for Brandenburg firing.

The stage was set for Jim Harrick Jr. It was his home debut as the interim San Diego State basketball coach, it was on television and he had a few friends in for the affair.

Try a complimentary ticket list of 102.

But even though the Aztecs played their most competitive game of the Western Athletic Conference season before losing to Hawaii, 66-58, Saturday, it was Rainbow Coach Riley Wallace who grabbed the attention afterward.

This despite word that SDSU starting forward Courtie Miller, who didn’t play Saturday, will undergo arthroscopic surgery either today or Monday for a partially torn lateral meniscus in his right knee.

Wallace, speaking of SDSU’s firing of Coach Jim Brandenburg on Tuesday, said he thought the situation was mishandled.

“I was fired in the middle of the year (at Centenary, in 1977-78), and it destroys, momentarily, your entire life,” Wallace said. “You’ve dedicated yourself to working with young people and it’s hard enough when things are going right.

“To be let go in the middle of the year is low-class. There is absolutely no way it should be done. I don’t care for the reasons, unless there is a murder or something.

“It shouldn’t be done.

“They’re your players, you worked with them, you should be allowed to finish the season. There’s no advantage to doing it (now), that I can see. Their season is already gone as far as a winning season.

“Just ride it out and let the man go gracefully.”

Wallace said that when Centenary got rid of him with a 4-8 record in 1977-78, they called him off of the practice floor to fire him.

“It ripped my heart right out of my chest,” he said. “If anyone can speak out, believe me, I know.”

The loss was the 16th in a row for SDSU (2-21, 0-11), leaving the Aztecs one short of tying the school record. That opportunity will arrive Thursday when SDSU plays Air Force.

If not for poor free throw shooting, though, the Aztecs wouldn’t even need to be concerned with a losing streak. They finally shot well from the floor--52%--and even led at halftime, 28-23, for the first time in WAC play.

But they made only 10 of 22 free throws.

Hawaii, meanwhile, made 23 of 26. And to make matters even worse for SDSU, the Rainbows began the week eighth in the WAC in free throw percentage (66%).

“We would have won the game had we hit our free throws,” said SDSU’s Tony Clark, who finished with 14 points. “That was basically it. That’s the whole ballgame right there.”

Hawaii’s final 15 points came on free throws, and the Rainbows made 15 of 16 in the final 5 1/2 minutes.

As for SDSU’s free throw attempts . . .

“What were we from the line?” Harrick asked afterward.

He cringed when told.

“Oh my gosh,” he said.

A few minutes later, he added: “I think we’ll start running (in practice) when we miss them. It’s got to be mental. I’m going to have to call my free-throw doctors.”

Forward Nelson Stewart, who is shooting 41% from the line for the season, was the worst offender. He was one for six.

SDSU’s other problem was turnovers--the Aztecs committed 22.

Joe McNaull led SDSU with 16 points; Fabio Riberio had 17 and Phil Lott 16 for Hawaii.