San Diego State Recap: Aztecs Gas Spartans, 85-54.
The Aztecs extend their winning streak and keep adding to their tournament resume.
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Houston scared? The Aztecs have something to say.
In their first game in a week due to cancellations against New Mexico, San Diego State could have played down to their opponent’s levels. But the Aztecs showed that they were hungry.
After finding out their series against New Mexico was canceled last week, and despite making phone calls to Gonzaga and Houston to grow their tournament resume, last weekend was an unexpected bye. Gonzaga went to Stockton to play Pacific and Houston opted for a buy game against Our Lady of the Lake, out of San Antonio.
Before tipoff, the Aztecs were ranked 21 in the NET and the lone Mountain West member in the top 30, a Quad 1 opponent for anyone keeping track at home. Coach Brian Dutcher could have found an inferior opponent to fill the schedule, but no team had called with a higher NET ranking.
Coming into Monday night’s game, the Aztecs have blown out the bottom conference in a 4-game winning streak. San Jose State who played the Aztecs down to the wire last season lost on a clutch 3-pointer from Malachi Flynn.
Besides that strong showing from the Spartans San Diego State has only lost once to San Jose State since their arrival in the 2013-2014 season.
San Diego State started slow, going neck-and-neck with San Jose State, in what people who think they were playing down to their opponent. But the Aztecs shifted gears and it was goodbye Spartans.
Terrell Gomez 3-pointer starts @1:01.
Terrell Gomez, who while at Cal State Northridge led the Big West in 3-pointers made in back-to-back years, casually squared up from 30 feet like Steph Curry and saw nothing but net, bringing the Aztecs ahead 23-21. The Aztecs went on a run and made defensive plays to get to the half leading, 47-29.
No Matt Mitchell again? Call it serendipity or great timing, but when the Aztecs started to pull away, it was clear the night off would help him rest with his injuries. San Diego State went with a 9-man rotation that saw Jordan Schakel scoring 23 points with 4-of-7 from downtown, Nathan Mensah was a rebound shy of a double-double, big man Josh Tomaic played 19 minutes scoring 12, and high-flying Keshad Johnson gets 10.
The Aztecs were too hungry to play with their dinner and extended their winning streak to 5 straight by 25+ points. Brian Dutcher’s boys play again on Wednesday, where San Jose State has a lot of game-planning to do against a team doing their best to secure a bid to Indianapolis.