CAN’T SLOW WILDCATS
Aztecs rally to take lead after sluggish start but give up 50 points in second half of their first loss
Overcoming one 16-point deficit against the No. 14 team in the country? No problem. Doing it twice? No chance. San Diego State’s 17th-ranked basketball team lost for the first time this season, falling 87-70 against Arizona in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational on Tuesday night in a game that was a blowout, then suddenly close, then a blowout again.
The consolation prize: No. 9 Arkansas, the highest ranked of the eight teams here, in the thirdplace game today at 7 p.m. PST on ESPN2. The loser will leave the islands 1-2.
It also means the Aztecs won’t
get a rematch against No. 10 Creighton, the team that broke their hearts in the NCAA Tournament last March (and the team they shared a charter flight with to Hawaii). The Bluejays will play Arizona for the Maui title instead.
“After this game,” SDSU guard Darrion Trammell said, “I feel like we have a lot to prove ... that we’re better than we (played).”
Tuesday’s game matched the Kenpom metric’s No. 4 offense (Arizona) against the No. 9 defense (SDSU), and the No. 36 offense (SDSU) against the No. 56
defense (Arizona). The Wildcats won both battles, shooting 58.6 percent against an Aztecs team that rarely lets teams above 40 percent while holding the Aztecs to 38.1 percent and, most notably, only four assists (and zero for the first 22 minutes).
The Aztecs (4-1) looked confused on offense and resorted too often to taking contested shots. Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd talked about helping off SDSU’s bigs to “choke off their perimeter players (that) we feel are the heart and soul of their team.” Trammell talked about having trouble reading where the help was coming from. Coach Brian Dutcher talked about Arizona “top locking” on post entries, a type of double team they hadn’t seen all season.
“If we had more time to prep, we would be better,” Dutcher said. “Does that mean we would win? No. But we would have been better. But they did a good job in a short amount of time prepping, better than we did.”
Trammell finally got untracked after two quiet games (a combined 1-of-14 shooting), finishing with 21 points and three
steals. But after getting untracked in Monday’s 88-77 win against Ohio State, Matt Bradley shot 1 of 8 and went from 18 points to five.
The only other Aztec in double figures was Micah Parrish with 10, and the bench had 23 points after contributing 41 against Ohio State.
The Wildcats (5-0) got 21 points from both starting guards, Texas transfer Courtney Ramey (5 of 5 beyond the arc) and Estonia’s Kerr Kriisa. They also weathered 19 turnovers and foul trouble by Ramey and both starting bigs, compensating with a 41-30 advantage on the boards and 36 points in the paint.
“If you told me we’d do that good a job against them on the fast break, I thought we’d have a good chance to win,” Dutcher said. “But they executed in the half court. They’re more than one-dimensional. They’re not just a fast-breaking team.”
Another game, another slow start. On Monday, the Aztecs missed their first eight shots and trailed 5-0. On Tuesday, they had turnovers on their opening two possessions and three in their first five after just seven all of Monday.
On Monday, the Aztecs got going offensively after the first media timeout and an injection of subs. On Tuesday, it took 15 minutes and Dutcher calling timeout down 31-15.
But then Ramey and 7foot Oumar Ballo both got their second fouls and went to the bench, and the Aztecs took advantage. They closed the half with an 18-6 run, 10 of their points coming from Trammell. Twice he turned steals at midcourt into layups, then drained a 3 at the halftime buzzer to close the margin to 37-34.
The craziest part: They trailed by only four despite having zero — that’s right, nada — assists in the first half, being outrebounded 2213 and being outshot 51.6 to 38.7 percent.
Their first assist came 2:40 into the second half, after a Nathan Mensah steal and Lamont Butler dish to Keshad Johnson for a dunk plus foul and free throw (and a chest bump of a fan sitting on the baseline). That gave SDSU its first lead and caused Lloyd to call his first timeout.
Lloyd: “I knew the run was coming. I was hoping it wasn’t, but I knew. I kind of was expecting it. But it couldn’t have played out better for us to have to get a little bit of a gut check. We need that.”
Cedric Henderson Jr.: “We really got together and said, ‘Get our heads together.’ We weren’t playing how we know how to play. We weren’t playing Arizona basketball. We were playing selfish. We weren’t getting into our rhythms. We were dribbling the ball too much, we weren’t swinging it. We figured it out, we started playing defense, we started passing the ball more, and we started getting open shots.”
Trammell: “We brought it back. We were feeling great. The crowd was into it, giving us a lot of energy. But at the end of the day, they just made good plays. That’s a good job on their part, keeping their composure.”
Fourteen seconds later, the Wildcats had the lead back after a 3 by Pelle Larssen.
Four minutes later, the lead was back to double figures as SDSU managed just three points in nine possessions.
Six minutes after that, it was back to 16 following back-to-back-to-back-toback SDSU turnovers and Dutcher was calling timeout again. This time, there was no comeback.
Now they get … the nation’s No. 9 team.
“That’s what we came here for,” Dutcher said of the daunting task in less than 24 hours. “We came here to play big games against good opponents. I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘Boy, I wish we were playing a bad team.’ No, this is what we are here for. We’re not in a power conference. We have to embrace these moments.
“I know my team will fight. Now, whether we play great and perfect basketball, I don’t know if that will happen or not. But I know they will bring the fight. They’re too good kids and they’re too tough a group not to.”