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Story and photo by Liz Alper
February 22, 2017 (San Diego) - San Diego State men’s basketball looked to win their fourth game in a row and go to 17-10 (9-6 in MW play) against 16-11 (8-7 in Mountain West play) Fresno State and sweep the season series with the Bulldogs tonight at Viejas Arena.
Contrary to the Aztecs San Diego has seen all season, these Aztecs wasted no time racking up seven points in the first four minutes thanks to a turnover that led to a basket, a three and a basket that led to an and one by senior guard Dakarai Allen. Allen did it all, racking up eight points in the first six minutes.
Despite Allen’s impressive performance, the Bulldogs came back and took a lead with eight minutes left on a couple of threes by the two Taylor guards: junior Jahmel hitting the first and sophomore Deshon with the second. Thank Trey Kell for keeping the Aztecs in the game. The junior guard scored four points to get the Aztecs within four, but a buzzer beating slam by Jahmel Taylor gave the Bulldogs a 30-24 advantage going into the locker room.
Fresno State came out on the attack in the second half, starting with senior guard/forward Paul Watson’s three and a two and two free throws by junior center Terrell Carter II to put them up by 11 early. The Aztecs kept it close, but Fresno State stayed out in front. That is, until seven minutes left in the game. Viejas Arena was loud, spurring the Aztecs on and they did not disappoint. What was a 40-30 Fresno State lead was cut to a one-point, 44-43 lead thanks to back to back threes by sophomores; one by guard Jeremy Hemsley and one by forward Max Hoetzel. But three-wins-and-clocking-out disease came back and the Aztecs let the game out of reach again. They simply lost their willingness to compete and the Bulldogs won their first game in San Diego since 1999 63-55. The Aztecs fall to 16-11 overall and 9-6 in conference play. A bright spot in tonight's game: Hemsley and Allen both finished with a game-high 13 points.
"We gotta give credit to them," Allen said postgame. "They played really well. We have to learn from our mistakes."
"They played better than us," Hemsley added "they did what they needed to do to win. They played better than us and the better team won tonight. We let the pressure get to us. We didn't do enough."
"No fun in our locker room after this one," head coach Steve Fisher said. "I thought Fresno State played very, very efficiently. They had a game plan that they came in with and stayed with it. You have to be able to make plays and we didn't make enough of them at either end. I thought that we got anxious when we got behind. They played extremely well, I want to underline that. They came in here and they played tough. They played good basketball. They did what they needed to do to come into our building in an important game and win. They've got a good, well-coached, talented team."
The Aztecs go on the road again for a Saturday night contest in Fort Collins, Colorado against Colorado State. Tipoff is set for 5:00 p.m. and you can watch the game on CBS Sports Network and listen in on The Mighty 1090.
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