MW CROWN TO BE HAD
Catcher Shane McGuire making the most of his decision to return for one more season with USD. SDSU TOPS NEVADA, ON TO TITLE CONTEST
The Nevada Wolf Pack is like that horror flick character for San Diego State. You keep thinking you killed it off. You didn’t.
It probably would have saved everybody a whole lot of time, and whistles, had the two basketball teams just walked on the floor at Thomas & Mack Center on Friday night for their Mountain West tournament semifinal and played the final few minutes instead of the first 30. That’s when these games always seem to be decided, and that’s when this one was, too.
Same script.
Same result.
This one didn’t go down to the wire like the two at Viejas Arena in January, but the No. 19 Aztecs had to hold off one Wolf Pack surge after another — wait, they’re not dead? — to secure a 77-70 victory.
It was their third win against Nevada this season and their 13th straight since being swept at Utah State in mid-January. More importantly, it gives them a chance to do one of the few things they haven’t done well in their remarkable ascension among college basketball’s top programs.
They advance to the Mountain West tournament final this afternoon (3 p.m., CBS) against either Colorado State or Utah State, which met in the late semifinal (and we mean late, tipping after 9:40 p.m.). It’s the eighth time in last decade that the Aztecs have reached the final; they’ve won only one of the previous seven.
But you can’t fix the problem if you don’t get there, and the Aztecs have again.
“I’d love to get there, first and foremost,” coach Brian Dutcher said earlier in the week. “If we win two games, then I’ll revisit what I need to do to get the team better prepared to win a champi
onship.”
Nevada decided not to borrow Wyoming’s game plan from the quarterfinals, when the Cowboys walked the ball up the floor and stood for the first 15 to 20 seconds of the shot clock to reduce possessions and “shorten” the game.
And the Aztecs looked like wild stallions let out of the corral, galloping down the floor at every opportunity. Their first two baskets came on transition 3s by Jordan Schakel, which was more transition points than they had in 40 minutes against the Cowboys. As soon as they grabbed a rebound or secured a steal, you could hear Dutcher in empty Thomas & Mack Center screaming, “Go, go, go.”
Matt Mitchell finished with 24 points and eight rebounds after missing six of his first seven shots, giving him 64 in three games against Nevada this season. He scored 15 straight early in the second half, including three 3s.
“I feel like I just did my job as being the aggressor, and it paid off,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t hit (a 3) in the last game, and I knew I had to get myself going. If the defense is giving me the shot, I’m going to take it.”
But it wasn’t just him. Schakel had 15 points and nine rebounds, missing his first career double-double
by a single rebound for the second time in the last three games in this arena. He also reached the 1,000-point plateau for his career. Trey Pulliam had 13, seven coming in a key second-half stretch with the game in the balance. Freshman Lamont Butler (10 points) made it four Aztecs in double figures, and Terrell Gomez came a point from having five.
SDSU (22-4) shot 54.5 percent and made nine 3s while holding the Wolf Pack (16-10) to 35.8 percent and only five 3s.
Playing college basketball games on back-to-back days, particularly between teams that had to work hard and expend energy to win the day before, can be an ugly affair. Or put it this way: Barely five minutes into Friday night’s game, SDSU already had seven fouls. And Nevada had one basket … and eight turnovers.
It didn’t get much more aesthetically pleasing from there, with any rhythm interrupted by whistles. There
were 52 combined fouls in the game and 66 total free throws from a veteran officiating crew that has worked multiple Four Fours.
One reason might be fatigue. In nearly all of SDSU’s two-game conference series this season (with a day between games), there have been more fouls — significantly more, in some cases — in the second game than the first.
“Basketball is a game of difficulties and sometimes frustration,” Mitchell said. “You’ve just have to play through the frustration, no matter what the refs are calling. The calls may go your way, they may not go your way. But no matter what, you’ve just got to play.”
Nevada was already in the bonus with just 4:48 gone and used it to shoot 19 firsthalf free throws, making 16. Good thing, too, because they made only seven baskets and all-conference guard Grant Sherfield had none.
Like it did so effectively in the regular-season meetings with the Wolf Pack, the Aztecs switched all ball screens knowing its bigs are quick enough to stay in front of Sherfield on the perimeter and long enough to deter his step-back jumpers.
The tweak from Nevada coach Steve Alford was to find the post matched against a guard by lobbing over the top. So Sherfield was 0 of 6 at the half, and 7foot Mission Hills High alum Warren Washington had 12
points from a combination of dunks and free throws.
Sherfield finally made a basket four minutes into the second half and finished with 25 points. But the Aztecs solved their issues inside with Washington, fronting him and bringing backside help quicker if he did get the ball inside.
Seven times in the second half, the Aztecs took double-digit leads. Seven times, the Wolf Pack quickly trimmed it to single figures. It was a six-point game with a minute to go, but free throws by Adam Seiko and Mitchell never let Nevada get any closer.
The foul trouble may have been a blessing in disguise, however. Mitchell and Schakel both logged 35 minutes, but Dutcher relied on his bench for everyone else, playing Aguek Arop 12 minutes as a back-up center because Nathan Mensah (14 minutes) and Joshua Tomaic (13 minutes) were constantly on the bench.
They have just 18 hours before they play again, their third game in as many days.
“We’re 10 deep,” Dutcher said. “Hopefully, that will pay dividends for us (today). When you have to play three games in three days, it’s always tough. This will be the ultimate challenge, and playing all these guys and sharing minutes will hopefully will give us fresh legs where we can be competitive.”
The NCAA Football Rules Committee on Friday recommended a slight change to overtime rules that would require a team to try a two-point conversion after a touchdown when a game reaches the second overtime instead of the third.
The committee also addressed the problem of teams faking injuries to slow an opponent’s momentum and blocking below the waist, among other areas.
Changes must be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which is scheduled to discuss football rules recommendations April 22.
The overtime recommendation was based on player safety and intended to reduce the number of plays it takes for a winner to be determined. National coordinator of officials Steve
Shaw said overtime games add an average of 16.4 plays to a contest.
The new rule would have teams run alternating twopoint plays in the third overtime instead of starting another drive at the opponent’s 25-yard line.
Alternating two-point plays currently start in the fifth overtime.
Teams could still choose whether to kick the point after touchdown or run a twopoint conversion play in the first overtime.
Tennis
Stefanos Tsitsipas’ bid to win a third straight Open 13 tournament fizzled out when he lost to doubles specialist Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals at Marseille, France. A French finalist is guaranteed, too, since Herbert plays fourth-seeded
Ugo Humbert. He won 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) against Arthur Rinderknech, a qualifier ranked 138th. Earlier, second-seeded Daniil Medvedev made light work of reaching the semis in brushing aside fifth-seeded Jannik Sinner 6-2, 6-4.
• Roberto Bautista Agut
ended Andrey Rublev’s
Qatar Open title defense in the semifinals by upsetting the Russian 6-3, 6-3 in Doha. The 13th-ranked Spanish player will face Nikoloz Basilashvili for the title in today’s final after the Georgian beat San Diego native
Taylor Fritz 7-6 (3), 6-1.
• Garbine Muguruza
reached her third final of the season after needing seven match points to beat Elise Mertens 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the semifinals of the Dubai Championships. Muguruza will play Barbora Krejcikova in today’s final as the
Spanish player seeks her first title since April 2019.
Soccer
Jamaal Lascelles rescued Newcastle at the death when he equalized in injury time to deny Aston Villa victory and rekindled hope of English Premier League survival. Lascelles powered home a last-gasp header to snatch a 1-1 draw at St James’ Park.
• Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic has yet to start an English Premier League match under Thomas Tuchel, but the manager stressed that the American remains “in my plans.”
Local colleges
The USD softball team (6-13) dropped two games at Cal State Fullerton (15-11) by scores of 4-1 and 10-0.
• Behind a hat trick by Rachelle Elve, the San Diego
State women’s soccer team (3-0-0 Mountain West) cruised to a 6-1 victory at San Jose State (0-2-0).
• The UC San Diego men’s volleyball team (1-5, 1-1 Big West) won its first match of the season, beating visiting UC Irvine (1-6, 1-1) 25-16, 24-26, 28-26, 21-25, 15-7.
Also
An uneasy stalemate in the 36th match for the America’s Cup continued when defender Team New Zealand and Italian challenger Luna Rossa each took advantage of a pre-start error by the other to leave the best-of-13 race series tied at 3-3.
• Japan will not take part in China’s offer — accepted by the International Olympic Committee — to provide vaccines for “participants” in the postponed Tokyo Games and next year’s Beijing Winter Games. Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa said Japan had not been consulted by the IOC about the Chinese vaccines, and that Japanese athletes would not take them. She said the vaccines have not been approved for use in Japan.
• Petra Vlhova is back on course to become the first Slovakian to win skiing’s overall World Cup title. Vlhova defended her first-run advantage in a slalom at Are, Sweden, to claim her 20th career victory.
She moved 64 points ahead of Swiss rival Lara Gut-Behrami — who does not race slaloms — in the overall standings. Vlhova finished 0.20 seconds ahead of recently crowned world champion Katharina Liensberger and 0.64 ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin.
In June, Carmen Dianne was attending a makeup mentorship program, but her focus was elsewhere.
The event came on the heels of George Floyd’s death, and the Black makeup artist felt as if a switch had flipped inside her. That day, she told herself her community needed grocery stores, a seed of an idea that has since grown into a full-fledged plan for a mobile market featuring Black farmers, chefs and food producers.
“Over quarantine, there’s been a lot of time to really see the world in different ways and observe everything that’s been happening,” said Dianne, 32.
After many long discussions with her friend Kara Still, a 37-year-old
Black fashion designer, they hit on the idea of a 48-foot-long mobile trailer that’s half farmers market and half food truck; they christened it Prosperity Market. The plan is for the
trailer to travel to different Los Angeles neighborhoods as a convenient way for people to support Black businesses with their purchases. It also
will make appearances in low-income areas, with the goal of offering free nutrition education, cooking classes and grocery giveaways.
Dianne and Still are in the midst of crowdfunding a $50,000 deposit to begin building their custom trailer (which will cost $140,000), with hopes of having it up and running by Juneteenth.
In the meantime, they are hosting monthly popups with their lineup of Black purveyors, starting with a three-day event at the end of last month. The first day was a virtual market where customers could preorder online and do a contactless, drive-thru pickup. On the second day, an in-person farmers market at Inglewood’s Faithful Central Bible Church highlighted vendors such as IGH Gardens, Farmer Ken and Hella’s Salsa (it also was the pickup site for customers who preordered on line). The weekend closed out with a free produce giveaway in South L.A.
Early in the planning process, Dianne did research on Black farmers in the United States and was surprised to learn that there aren’t many. “We have less than 2 percent of Black farmers in the nation right now,” Dianne said. “In the 1920s, we had almost a million Black farmers. The number has steadily declined because [they] were denied bank loans, or they would get bank loans late, or they would get them at way less amounts than they requested. So, with less money, they would have smaller harvests. They made smaller profits. And eventually, there were foreclosures.”
The partners found their first Black farmers through Compton Community Garden. “We realized that we had to go find smaller farmers, like we’re not going to find the big farm plots, because they’re not in South L.A. or even in Southern California as a whole,” Dianne said. “Most of the Black farmers that are here [in California] are in Fresno or they’re in the Bay [Area]. So, we’ve had to find the community gardens and the urban farmers.”
Dianne and Still formed a partnership with Adrienne Wilson, founder of Feed Our Soul, an organization that addresses the issue of food deserts. Wilson has been instrumental in connecting them with contacts in the food and nonprofit sectors and providing guidance on organizing farmers markets.
“It’s super inspiring to watch and see ... [them] figure out what is really the problem and how they can be a solution to that problem,” said Wilson. “And especially in the food space, where we have so many issues ... with food deserts and food insecurity. They are really focused on shining a different light on that and creating prosperity in our communities.”
Ken Sparks (aka Farmer Ken) is another leader in the community who is advising Dianne and Still. Sparks, who does garden consultations and installations, will be at the pop-up selling produce — including African blue basil, kale and Swiss chard — he grows in his East L.A. backyard.
Sparks is happy to be part of it all. “‘Equity’ is one of the words that speaks to my mind, just making sure that there’s an option for people to have healthy food,” he said. “Fresh food grown locally is another thing that’s very important to me.”
Sparks introduced the women to Charles Southward, a U.S. Air Force veteran who previously experienced homelessness and now runs the nonprofit IGH Gardens in the city of Bell. Southward donates produce he grows, like collard
“‘Equity’ is one of the words that speaks to my mind, just making sure that there’s an option for people to have healthy food. Fresh food grown locally is another thing that’s very important to me.” Ken Sparks, aka Farmer Ken
and mustard greens, to homeless communities and aims to teach others gardening skills.
“I’m really happy that they tried to bring all of us together and that we can serve the community,” said Southward.
For Dianne and Still, it takes a village to enact change.
“We all have our own contributions ... and there’s no competition,” Still said. “It’s really a collective effort to support and grow and uplift one another . ... And this is the vehicle, literally, that we’re choosing to create that.”