San Diego State made 19 3-pointers in Friday night’s win against Division III Occidental College, equaling the Viejas Arena single-game record.
Told it was set by Troy University in 2003 in a nine-point win against the Aztecs, and knowing the Trojans were their next opponent at Viejas, guard Adam Seiko joked: “Hopefully they don’t do that again.”
Uh …
The Trojans looked like they might, making seven 3s in the first half and leading by eight points midway through the second before the freshly No. 22 Aztecs pulled another one out of the fire, 60-55 before an uneasy crowd of 12,038.
“They had seven 3s in the first half,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “If they had seven in the second half, they would have won.”
Troy had two after intermission.
Dutcher worried about this game after seeing Troy win at Florida State and lead at No. 9 Arkansas inside six minutes to go before losing. And the Trojans and their 3-point marksmen were certainly part of the problem.
But so, increasingly, is an SDSU team that is 7-2 and nationally ranked but not necessarily playing like it. That struggles to get defensive stops at times. That scored its season low by 10 points. That is banged up physically and mentally. That continues to turn the ball over too frequently. That reverted to its recent 3-point shooting struggles. That let a team missing its leading scorer and two bigs hang around far too long.
Not just hang around, but lead.
It was 45-37 with 10 minutes to go when the Aztecs decided that they didn’t want to lose a “buy” game, where their school pays the visitors in the high five figures to play a one-off date on their home floor. An 11-0 run got them the lead, punctuated by a Seiko 3 that ended a 3 of 19 drought.
A twisting Darrion Trammell layup in traffic put the Aztecs up five inside a minute to go, but then Trammell was whistled for fouling Nelson Phillips attempting a 3. Phillips made the first and missed the next two, only for the rebound to be knocked out of bounds.
Amy Bonner, a rare female official in Div. I, signaled Troy ball. After a lengthy video review, the call was upheld, giving Troy life. The Trojans worked the ball to Aamer Muhammad (21 points), who drove hard against Trammell, who stripped the ball, was fouled and made both free throws to ice it.
Matt Bradley led the Aztecs with 19 points on 7 of 10 shooting. Trammell, who sat out Friday with a tweaked hamstring, had 14 but shot 4 of 13 (1 of 6 on 3s). Nathan Mensah had seven points, nine rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.
The bigger factor was the Aztecs defense, which held the Trojans to 21.4% shooting in the second half and only eight points over the final 10½ minutes (and that included a desperation 3 with six seconds left). Their 55 points is a season low, six fewer than against No. 9 Arkansas.
After a shaky defensive effort in their last Div. I game, a 72-69 win against UC Irvine that required a last-second 3, the Aztecs looked like a group wanting to re-establish their identity on that side of the ball. Troy opened the game 0 of 7 and took 4:45 to score its first points.
But then the Trojans made a 3. And another. And another, one deeper than the last.
At the offensive end, the Aztecs had the opposite problem. They couldn’t make 3s.
Three days after their 19 of 37 effort against Occidental, the most by an SDSU team in at least 25 years, they missed their first four and didn’t get one to go down until 8:35 left in the first half.
Which didn’t stop them from shooting them. Dutcher had seen enough and called timeout down 30-23 with 2:24 left in the half. And no doubt mentioned that, uh, they were shooting 7 of 9 inside the arc and 2 of 11 behind it. Maybe try something a little closer.
Troy already was without 6-foot-10 Nate Tshimanga, then 6-8 Lydell Geffrard rolled an ankle early.
The next three baskets: Mensah layup, Bradley mid-range jumper, Aguek Arop layup.
But there still was the matter of the 10 first-half turnovers, and the Aztecs trailed 33-29 despite outshooting the Trojans 50 to 44.8% because, well, 3-pointers are worth more than 2s and Troy had already made seven of the former.
The second half started the same way as the first – with Troy not scoring, this time for five and a half minutes, trailing and then roaring ahead.
Because this happened: Aamer Muhammad lost the ball 30 feet from the basket, retrieving from the floor, turned and chucked up a one-handed, off-balance, ill-advised 3 with 15 seconds on the shot clock. Swish.
After the Aztecs missed a 3 at the other end, Zay Williams scored inside and the Trojans had their biggest lead at 45-37.
SDSU finished 4 of 22 (18.2%) on 3s and 18 of 31 (58%) inside the arc.
Bad: 17 turnovers.
Good: 12 of 13 from the line after shooting under 60% the last two games.
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