SDSU MEN'S BASKETBALL EDGES GEORGIA IN WOODEN LEGACY SEMIFINAL

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

 

Like our sports coverage?  Donate to help support ECM’s sports section!  Type “Sports” on the donation line!

Check out our sports section for more sports stories!

Follow @ECMagSports on Twitter for live sports coverage and stories!

Story by Liz Alper

Photo courtesy goaztecs.com

November 24, 2017 (Fullerton) - After a demonstrative win against Sacramento State last night, SDSU men’s basketball celebrated Black Friday by hitting the basketball court instead of the mall as they faced Georgia in the semifinals of the Wooden Legacy.

If you flipped on the game within the first four minutes, you knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as yesterday.  The Bulldogs jumped out to a 6-0 lead.  The Aztecs missed their first seven shots before senior Trey Kell scored the first bucket four minutes in.  At the 12-minute mark, SDSU was only shooting 2-14.  Kell was 2-3.  The rest of the team...well...let’s just say that the Bulldogs were apparently recovering from food poisoning and were still 7-18 from the field.  However, with nine minutes left in the first half, the Aztecs were on a 7-0 run and the Bulldogs were three minutes gone without a point.  That is, until senior Yante Maten ended the drought with a three pointer.  Junior William Jackson II hit a career-high 16 points in the first half alone to give Georgia an 11-point lead.  But things started to change a little after a flagrant 1 was called on Maten.  Whether redshirt freshman Jalen McDaniels sold the play is irrelevant because he went on to hit two technical foul free throws and a big three by freshman Jordan Schakel brought the Aztecs to within four.  Maten kept helping the Aztecs out with a technical mand Georgia’s true colors started to show as the fouls started coming.  Kell gave the Aztecs their first lead of the game on a finger roll and the Aztecs were on a 20-5 run when junior Devin Watson hit a big three to put them up by four.  Maten was angry and got Georgia the lead again with four free throws in a row.  By the end of the half, SDSU wasn’t winning, but it was a game as Georgia led 34-33 heading to the locker room.

Seniors Malik Pope and Kameron Rooks kicked off the second half with back-to-back buckets to give the Aztecs a lead.  But from then on, it was a see-saw, with both teams exchanging blows.  At the nine-minute mark, the two decided to fight each other in layups.  It was SDSU who finally broke through the cracks, but they had to deal with a new enemy; 6’11” freshman Nicolas Claxton, who tied up the game again on an and-one foul.  At the 3:39 mark, we’d been tied eight times and had 14 lead changes.  Pope was keeping the Aztecs afloat with smooth floating baskets to give them little leads.  Then guess who?  Freshman Matt Mitchell did what he does best; nail a three to put the red and black up by four once more.  Kell and McDaniels broke through the tough Georgia defense finally, Kell with a smooth floater that put the Aztecs up by their biggest lead of the game:  a whopping eight.  Georgia got a few back, but SDSU held strong and squeezed out a 75-68 win against a team with a player who will be in the NBA next year.

SDSU finally gets a day of rest before taking on Washington State on Sunday in the Wooden Legacy title game.  Tipoff is at 9:00 p.m.  The game can be viewed on ESPN2.

Box

Postgame notes

 


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.