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Story and photos by Liz Alper
January 10, 2017 (San Diego) - The SDSU men’s basketball team has opened Mountain West conference play with a 2-0 record against Utah State and Colorado State. Tonight they tried to make it 3-0 against the Spartans of San Jose State, whose women’s team will give the lady Aztecs a run for their money tomorrow night in San Jose. The Spartans were greeted in Viejas on a cold, rainy San Diego night. Luckily, basketball is played indoors! San Jose State comes into Viejas at a pitiful (to put it nicely) 3-12 overall record and 0-4 in the Mountain West.
Despite the Spartans’ poor record, the Aztecs struggled in the early going against them. Maybe it was the long break, but SJSU got the better of the red and black for the first five minutes. Senior forward Malik Pope kept the Aztecs in the game with some smooth jams and layups. It wasn’t until senior guard Trey Kell and redshirt freshman forward Jalen McDaniels hit two big threes that the Aztecs started to have some life pumped into them and got their first lead of the game. McDaniels was a one-man show, quickly racking up eight points on 4/6 from the field and slamming down some nice jams. Thanks to him and last-minute efforts by Pope and Kell, the Aztecs cruised to a 32-23 lead at halftime.
The Aztecs returned with a vengeance in the second half. This time, they were led by junior guard Devin Watson, who in the span of two minutes reached 10 points on the game and reduced the Spartans back to their 3-12 image. What was once a three-point Aztec lead was now more than 40. Junior forward Max Montana dealt the finishing blows to the Spartans with three straight threes to finish with 17 points and the Aztecs conquered the Spartans 85-49. Pope also finished with 17 points. Watson finished with 15 and McDaniels with 13.
“You know, everyone thinks you’re just gonna roll over people,” head coach Brian Dutcher said after the game. “In the first half they made it hard on us...they’re a well-coached team...I thought we did a good job when they turned the ball over. We really ran the fast break well, we ran the floor well and the thing I’m most proud of is the way we shared the ball...when you share the ball and you take care of the ball, you give yourself a chance to win and I thought we did that tonight.”
Next up for the Aztec boys is another one-game road trip, this time to Idaho to face the Broncos of Boise State on Saturday night. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. and you can watch the game on ESPN2.
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