Brigham Young Crunches SDSU : College basketball: Taller Cougars dominate boards en route to 98-78 WAC victory. Aztecs suffer their 20th consecutive defeat.

Trying to find a silver lining in a lingering dark cloud, Jim Harrick Jr., San Diego State’s interim basketball coach, said the Aztecs are only now beginning to play the way he would like.

Unfortunately, they aren’t winning the way he would prefer.

SDSU lost its 20th consecutive game Saturday night, this one 98-78 to Western Athletic Conference rival Brigham Young in front of 16,910.

“We came out and played pretty hard,” Harrick said of the Aztecs, who have only one game remaining and could become the first team to complete a WAC schedule 0-16. “We played physical. That’s what we wanted to do, and I’m proud of that.

“BYU’s a good basketball team. They’re going to do some damage in the (WAC) tournament. It’s hard to play for us when we know we’re not going to be playing in the tournament.

“Holy cow. I wish we were there. We’re just starting to play a little bit. Our guys would like to play about 10 more games.”

As long as those games are not against BYU, which remained tied for first in the WAC at 11-4 (20-5 overall). SDSU is 2-25, 0-15.

Harrick is 0-6 since taking over for Jim Brandenburg, who was fired on Feb. 11.

BYU had six players in double-figure scoring and three with six or more rebounds. The Cougars outrebounded SDSU, 41-28.

“We don’t have anybody to stop that many big guys,” Harrick said.

Swingman Tony Clark led the Aztecs with 23 points, 12 coming on four three-pointers. Forward Terrence Hamilton added 17 points, center Joe McNaull 13 and guard Ray Barefield 10.

The Cougars’ Gary Trost shared game-high scoring honors with Clark, and like Clark had six rebounds.

BYU also got 13 points apiece from Mark Heslop and Jared Miller, 12 from Nick Sanderson, 11 from Kevin Nixon and 10 from Nathan Call. Heslop and Miller each had nine rebounds.

Trost scored six of his 23 points to key a 20-5 first-half run that broke open a game SDSU led 23-22 after John Molle’s basket with 8:02 remaining in the first half.

Over the next four minutes, BYU made its run, which featured two baskets and a pair of free throws from Trost.

The spurt also included a three-point play by Miller and three-point baskets from Sanderson, Call and Nixon.

BYU shot 53% from the field while SDSU made 44%.

SDSU finishes its season Friday in Hawaii.