For a school—and a city—constantly trying to come up with a sports tradition, the San Diego State Aztecs had a pretty good idea on Saturday night against 13th ranked BYU. On “Blackout Saturday” at Viejas Arena, the 12,414 fans in attendance came dressed all in black.
Then the SDSU mens’ basketball team came out on the court. Dressed all in white.
It was the first bad sign for an Aztecs squad that came out backward, recovered, and then surrendered a 15-0 second-half run, succumbing to the Cougars 71-69.
Jimmer Fredette, the likely Mountain West Conference player of the year, battled through mononucleosis to score a game-high 33 points, leading BYU (20-1, 5-0 MWC) to a road victory. The Aztecs (14-6, 3-3) saw their 14-game home winning streak come to an end.
After the jump, watch postgame video from Steve Fisher, check out a photo gallery from the game, and more!
While the sold out crowd was in full throat and black towel-whipping frenzy to start the game, the Aztecs started poorly. BYU smoothly moved out to a 12 point lead midway through the first half as SDSU failed to execute offensively. Fredette and freshman guard Tyler Haws were getting clean looks from outside and burying them to put SDSU in a 22-10 hole.
Watch a brief video of “The Show”, the SDSU student section, cheering on during the Aztec fight song:
San Diego State then turned up the pressure on the boards, with Kawhi Leonard (16 points, 11 rebounds, six offensive) swooping in to collect multiple offensive rebounds. Malcolm Thomas took advantage of BYU double-teams, passing effectively out of the high post to collect five first-half assists (four to Brian Carlwell on high post flash plays). The Cougars led 35-34 at the half.
619 Sports’ photojournalist David Olender’s photo gallery from BYU-SDSU:
San Diego State gained a lead early in the second half as D.J. Gay started to assert himself offensively. After a quiet first half, the junior point guard scored seven straight points for the Aztecs, and SDSU built a 50-45 lead on Kawhi Leonard’s putback layup with just over 10 minutes to play.
But BYU head coach Dave Rose switched to a zone defense at the right time. With SDSU failing to penetrate the zone, Kelvin Davis (3-12 FGs, 1-8 three pointers) started shooting the Aztecs out of the game with multiple missed threes. The Aztecs went 5:40 without a field goal against the BYU zone.
Head coach Steve Fisher defended his team’s shot selection against the zone, saying “we didn’t take too many threes, we just didn’t make enough.”
Watch Steve Fisher’s complete postgame comments:
Trailing 62-53, SDSU made one last run. Davis’ only made three-pointer was answered by a Fredette triple (5-8 from deep). After a Tyrone Shelley basket, the Aztecs managed a steal and Billy White was fouled intentionally. White (8 points, 2 rebounds) made both free throws, and on the ensuing possession Shelley scored again to cut the lead to 65-62.
A Kawhi Leonard basket brought SDSU within one at 67-66 with less than a minute to play, but Fredette then pulled out his best solo effort of the night, bleeding 30 seconds off the shot clock before weaving through the Aztecs defense to score a one-on-five layup. Davis turned the ball over on the next Aztecs possession, and it was lights out on Blackout Saturday.
SDSU gets a week off before their next game, traveling to Colorado State next Saturday.
***
PROVO, Utah — Hours prior to the men’s disappointment, the SDSU women also disappointed in a 73-63 loss to BYU, falling out of first-place in the MWC. The Aztecs started slow, trailing 24-10 just eight minutes into the game and never caught up.
Junior center Paris Johnson scored 10 points to move past 1,000 points for her career, but SDSU was dominated on the front line by the Cougars (12-4, 4-1), who fought their way to a 39-27 rebounding advantage.
Jene Morris scored 19 for SDSU, which has lost two of three following a seven-game winning streak. The Aztecs (12-6, 4-2) rallied to within two at halftime, but BYU opened the second half on a 7-0 run.
“We kept battling back, but we couldn’t get over the hump,” SDSU Coach Beth Burns said. “We didn’t bring enough energy and that cost us.”
Like the men, the Aztec women won’t play again until next Saturday when they host Colorado State at 2 p.m.
– Ello
