The Aztecs Winning A Game On Free Throws? Believe It! D.J. Gay Beat Colorado State in Thursday's MWC Quarterfinals With A Pair From The Line In The Final Minute
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — I’ve known Randy McClintock for more than 25 years now. Went to college with him at San Diego State. Big Aztec fan, Randy is. Wears a No. 21 Evan Burns (Evan Burns?) white Aztec jersey to games.
Sat with him in the stands here Thursday afternoon for SDSU’s Mountain West Conference tournament opener against Colorado State at the Thomas & Mack Arena. Sat with Randy for a lot of Aztec games over the years.
You’d think we’d be used to it by now. But no matter how many times these guys drive you nuts with silly plays and wild shots, missed free throws (an Aztec tradition) and fumbled rebounds, doing almost everything they can, seemingly, to keep lesser teams in the game, it never gets easier to root, root, root for the ol’ Red and Black.
Finally, when it was over, when Colorado State’s Travis Busch’s desperate heave falling out of bounds from half-court sailed well wide of the mark, and SDSU had survived, 72-71, to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive, Randy and I exhaled.
“I’ll tell you,” Randy said. “We’re never going to see (the age of) 70 if we have to keep watching games like this.”
Never did it feel like truer words had been spoken. Cursed through the decades by heart-breaking losses on the football field and basketball court, the life of a die-hard Aztec fan seems as if it can lead us all to only one conclusion: we will die hard (and probably too early, like Randy said).
Even the wins are hard to take. Like Thursday’s.
Favored SDSU charged into the contest as a heavy favorite — and promptly fell behind, 7-0, in the opening three minutes. They were able to right the ship for awhile thanks to freshman guard Chase Tapley, who knocked down everything he threw up, despite playing with a broken bone in his (non-shooting) left hand. Give SDSU Athletic Trainer Mark Haines mad props for pulling out all the stops to get Tapley on the court.
Without him, they would have been in big trouble — as we would all eventually find out in the second half. With his 15 points before intermission, the Aztecs were able to carve out a 41-33 lead. Ominous clouds were forming, however. (They always are when SDSU is playing).
That’s because during the first half, jumping-jack Aztec forward Billy White came back down after a jump and badly twisted his ankle. Again give Haines credit for taping Billy back up and getting him back out there. But with Billy lacking full lift-off, the conference’s best rebounding team (by far) had lost an important advantage. The Rams would attack the glass the rest of the game and punish SDSU time-and-again with second-chance baskets. (At an SDSU Alumni function following the contest, Coach Steve Fisher would spot former Aztec rebounding great Michael Cage in the crowd and tell Cage that he could have used his services during the game).
Another thing that would eventually work against SDSU actually looked like a major break for the Red and Black when it first happened. It was midway through the first-half, and CSU’s best player, power forward Andy Ogide, threw a forearm shiv at Aztec center Brian Carwell after grabbing a defensive rebound. Officials didn’t see it clearly at first, but after looking at a replay monitor, they decided the play merited a flagrant technical foul — and they ejected Ogide from the game.
Frankly, it was a terrible decision (a simple technical foul would have sufficed), but now the Rams — undermanned to begin with — were going to have to try and beat the Aztecs with their most potent weapon silenced for the rest of the afternoon. Only against San Diego State could this development actually turn out well for CSU, as Fisher explained:
“When Ogide went out, they came in with all perimeter players,” said the Aztecs Coach, who has seen a lot of things over the years but maybe not quite as many strange things as Randy and I (and you) have. “That forced our big guys to have to cover all over the floor, and it made it tough to get out on all of their shooters.”
As SDSU would soon learn, not getting to Colorado State’s shooters nearly sent the Aztecs to another NIT. The Rams would storm back into the game by making 8-of-15 from beyond the arc, including four by guard Adam Nigon and two more by point guard Dorian Green. SDSU responded by pounding the ball inside to White and Malcolm Thomas, who scored at will against the Ogide-less and now smallish CSU front line.
That strategy worked for awhile, but eventually the Rams were able to clog things up around the basket. That’s because Tapley’s broken hand became too painful for him to continue in the second half. Sixth-year Senior Kelvin Davis took Tapley’s place but, on this day at least, had about as much of a chance of making an outside shot as Randy or I did.
Davis went oh-fer from the perimeter then even air-balled a free throw. His line for the afternoon: 0 points, 0 rebounds. Tyrone Shelley, playing with a broken thumb, gave it a try as well but was nearly as ineffective as Davis was. Then super-frosh Kawhi Leonard fouled out. And SDSU’s season appeared as if it were about to be fouled-up.
A driving three-point play by Green put CSU up, 71-70, with just under a minute remaining. Where would the Aztecs go for a game-winning basket? To the hobbling White? To the one-thumbed Shelley? To the misfiring Davis? Inside to Thomas, who was being completely surrounded? To Leonard or Tapley, who were sitting next to Fisher on the bench?
To Randy (who was at least healthy, but being covered by me)?
D.J. Gay, the Aztecs point guard, decided he really could go to nobody. So he drove hard to the hoop and hoped…and was rewarded with a foul called against CSU’s Travis Franklin. Of course, by this time, SDSU had already missed 10 free throws in the contest. And now we were counting on Gay to make a pair and give the Aztecs the lead.
Earlier this season, at New Mexico, Gay had been fouled on a three-point attempt with one second to play, the Aztecs trailing by two. With 13,000 fans in The Pit screaming at him, Gay could have won the game by making all three free throws. He made two (still not that bad considering the circumstances) and the game went into overtime, where SDSU lost.
This time, the entire fate of the season rode on his free throws. An Aztec season hanging in the balance — and free throws to be the determining factor. (Be honest long-time SDSU fans. Did you really think he was going to make them both?).
He did.
CSU committed a turnover with five seconds left, and then Tapley — brought back in with his broken hand throbbing — missed the front end of a one-and-one. The Rams raced to half-court where Busch flung his half-court heave. The ball landed wide of the backboard as the final horn sounded.
Fisher exchanged a handshake with losing CSU Coach Tim Miles and told him, “you guys should have won that game.”
In the end, though, Randy and I — and the rest of Aztecs faithful — actually were the ones who won. Our reward is a chance to sweat out another maddening Aztecs basketball game in the MWC semifinals.
– Ello
Craig Elsten -
Chris Ello -
Chainsaw -
