San Diego St

MWC Basketball Preview: 08-09

CHN — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:52:22 -0500

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Conference Rank: 8th

10 year average: 7th

All-MWC Team
Pos.	Player	Team	Yr.

G	Wink Adams	UNLV	Sr
G	Brandon Ewing	Wyoming	Sr
G/F	Lee Cummard	BYU	Sr
F	Lorenzo Wade	San Diego St	Sr
F	Luke Nevill	Utah	Sr
CHN Award Winners		Returning Leaders
High-Major All-Americans Wink Adams Lee Cummard Brandon Ewing Luke Nevill Lorenzo Wade		Points: Brandon Ewing 17.2 Rebounds: Luke Nevill 6.7 Assists: Brandon Ewing 4.0

MWC Standings
Nat'l	Team	League	Tourney

28	UNLV**	MWC	1	NCAA
36	BYU	MWC	2	NCAA
51	New Mexico	MWC	3	NIT
55	San Diego State	MWC	4	NIT
88	Utah	MWC	5
145	Air Force	MWC	6
168	Wyoming	MWC	7
188	Colorado State	MWC	8
228	TCU	MWC	9

*Click on links for full Top 144 team preview

** returning conference champion

Poll: Who Do You Think Will Win the MWC?

Other MWC Content

Head Coach Q&A's

Steve Alford: New Mexico

Other Polls

AP Top 25: UNLV 27th

Other

Top Small Forwards: Lee Cummard

Rise & Fall: MWC

MVC/MWC Challenge Announced

Daily Conference Poll: Who Will Win the MWC?

Shawn Siegel — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:18:23 -0400

2008-09 San Diego State Preview: #55

Joel Welser — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:09:55 -0400

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San Diego State Aztecs

Overall Rank: #55

Conference Rank: #4 MWC

2007-08: 20-13, 9-7, 4^th

2007-08 postseason: NIT

Eight players averaged over 20 minutes per game last year at San Diego State and all eight of them are back. Coach Steve Fisher has a deep and talented team and there will be few excuses, barring more injuries, for this group not to make a postseason tournament.

Who’s Out:

The bottom four minute earners from the 2007-2008 campaign are the only departures and even all of them might not be gone. Jer’Vaughn Johnson, Chris Lamb and Jon Pastorek all averaged under ten minutes per game during their final season with the Aztecs. Matt Thomas started eight games and could return for a fifth year pending NCAA approval.

Who’s In:

Even with all the returning talent, San Diego State could use some more options on the perimeter. Walk-ons Bryan Horton and Jason Deutchman are probably not the answer, but Tim Island could be. The junior college transfer, who spent his freshman campaign at Long Beach State, is a good shooter. At 6-6, he also has nice size for a two guard in the MWC. Another junior college transfer, Mehdi Cheriet, will add more depth in the paint. Cheriet can hit the outside shot and can provide some depth at the center spot using his 6-9 and 200 pound frame.

Who to Watch:

No team can match the depth and talent of the Aztecs frontcourt. Lorrenzo Wade and Kyle Spain* are the leaders. Wade averaged 14.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists last year and earned first-team all-conference honors. Wade is not a great outside shooter, but he makes up for it by getting to the basket. If the outside shot starts falling, nobody will be able to stop Wade. Spain was the most prolific outside shooter on the team and the 6-5 forward is versatile enough to play at the two guard spot. And with the talent in the frontcourt, having Spain play at shooting guard would make sense. That would allow Billy White or Tim Shelton to slide into the starting lineup. White averaged 8.5 points and 5.9 rebounds en route to conference freshman of the year honors. It was when Shelton went down with a knee injury that White got the opportunity to shine. Now Shelton is back after playing in four contests and averaging ten points per game in those games. His ability to play inside and out will give SDSU yet another dynamic scorer in the frontcourt…as long as he can stay healthy. The center spot belongs to Ryan Amoroso. At 6-8 and 257 pounds, he is big enough to clog the paint. Amoroso, who averaged 11.4 points and a team high 6.5 rebounds as a junior, can score from the perimeter, but his ability to score in the paint frees up space for his teammates.

Final Projection:

The pressure is on the backcourt to help the Aztecs live up to their vast potential. Kelvin Davis had a decent year in San Diego after transferring in from the College of Southern Idaho. For the most part he was used as a shooter off the bench during the 2007-2008 campaign, but he has the potential to step into a starting role if he can hold off Island. Yet, he also needs to perform well enough for Coach Steve Fisher to want to keep a guard on the floor instead of sliding Spain down to the shooting guard position. At the point there are options with Richie Williams and D.J. Gay. Williams is the experienced option, but Gay started 26 games as a freshman. Neither are great scorers, but that is not what the Aztecs need out of their point guard. As long as the duo at the point can keep the turnovers down and find the scorers, San Diego State will be a dangerous team in the Mountain West Conference. But those turnovers have been a problem in the past and if that trend continues, there will be disappointment on The Mesa.

Projected Post-season Tournament: NIT

Projected Starting Five:

Richie Williams, Senior, Guard, 6.9 points per game

Kelvin Davis, Senior, Guard, 7.5 points per game

Kyle Spain, Senior, Forward, 13.2 points per game

Lorrenzo Wade, Senior, Forward, 14.8 points per game

Ryan Amoroso, Senior, Forward, 11.4 points per game

*Note: The status of suspended Kyle Spain for the upcoming season is uncertain as of today. His absence would be a major blow.

Complete Top 144 Ranking | 2008-09 Preview & Awards | Coach Interviews | Discuss the Preview

State of '08: California

Shawn Siegel — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:27:44 -0400

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Duke or Carolina? BC or UMASS? Gonzaga or Washington.. or Washington State? What is the best program in each state? While there's not much competition in Hawaii.. there are great debates to be had in loaded regions like California, North Carolina, and Texas. The State of '08 is a ranking of every program in every state.. based mostly on recent success (the last five years) mixed in with subjective factors such as conference prestige, historical success, and overall program direction.

Up today: California. For more info, check out the State of '08 introduction.

CALIFORNIA

UCLA - Not much "research" required to rank the Bruins. Three Final Fours in a row for one of the game's all-time great programs.

Stanford - Quietly in the middle of an impressive run, Stanford has made the Big Dance in 13 of 14 seasons. The future is a bit unsettled though, with a new coach (Johnny Dawkins) and the Lopez twins off to the NBA.

USC - Tim Floyd's done a nice job getting USC back on track. From 2003 to 2006, the Trojans had a sub-100 RPI every year, but have since made back to back NCAA Tournaments. This year's freshman class is also considered to be one of the Top 5 in the country.

Saint Mary's - Coming off a big 25-win season, fans are expecting the Gaels to return to the NCAA Tournament for the 3rd time in five seasons. While Gonzaga owns the WCC, Saint Mary's has been 2nd in four of the last five tries.

San Diego State - Steve Fisher has done a nice job turning SDSU into a consistent MWC contender, making the postseason 5 times in the last 7 years, and winning 20 games each of the last 3. The Aztecs should once again make a push for 20 wins in 08-09.

6. California - After a surprisingly long 12-year run, Ben Braun is out.. replaced by the man who turned Stanford into a long-time winner (Mike Montgomery). Under Braun, Cal did make five NCAA Tournaments, but just one in the last five seasons.

7. Pacific - The Tigers have found a good groove in recent seasons, winning 20 games in 4 of the last 5 years, and making the Tournament three times. Despite a rough offseason, Pacific should once again be competitive in the Big West.

8. UCSB - Despite an impressive 23 win season, the Gauchos missed out on making the NCAA Tournament. The program has averaged 16 wins over Bob Williams 10-year stint.

9. San Diego - The Toreros surprised many by winning the WCC title last year, and making the Big Dance. This is all the more impressive considering the team won just 4 total games in 2004.

10. Santa Clara - The Broncos parted ways with long-time coach Dick Davey before last season, as he could never reproduce the team's great mid-nineties success. Kerry Keating led his new squad to a mediocre 186 RPI last year, which included just 13 D1 wins.

11. Fresno State - The Bulldogs are coming off a horrible season, with just 12 D1 wins and an RPI of 243. The prior season, they made the postseason for the first time since the Tarkanian era.

12.CS Fullerton - This program has come a long way since 01-02, when the Titans combined to win 7 D1 games. Bob Burton led Fullerton to the Big Dance for the first time in three decades, winning 20 games for the third time in four seasons as well.

13. Pepperdine - Up until the end of Paul Westphal's career in 2006, Pepperdine had been a consistent winner in the 90's and early 00's. Now they've brought back Tom Asbury to try and recreate that former success following three down years.

14. UC Irvine - The Anteaters are consistently solid under Pat Douglass, but have yet to reach the Tourney in his 12 year tenure. 15-16 wins seems to be the norm recently.

15. San Francisco - The Dons had decent results under Jessie Evans (peaking at 86 in the RPI in 2005), before things went sour last year. He was replaced by Eddie Sutton, who turned the program into a circus while trying to win 800 games.

16. CS Northridge - The Matadors have had limited success since joining the Big West in 2002. Last year was one of their best seasons since then, winning 19 D1 games and finishing with an RPI of 110. Some consider Northridge to be the conference favorites in 2009.

17. LBSU - Its amazing the 49ers made the NCAA Tournament in 2007, considering how awful they were last year. Former Minnesota coach Dan Monson took over a program devoid of any returning talent, so we'll give him some time to turn things around. From 2003 to 2005, LBSU was one of the worst teams in the country.

18. LMU - While the legendary Paul Westhead run seems like ancient history, at least the embarrassing winless 2000 season is also moving into the distant past. Bill Bayno has his hands full taking over a team that won 5 games last year.

19. San Jose State - Consistently one of the worst teams in high-major basketball, SJSU hasn't finished above 230 in the RPI since 2001. Last year there were actually signs of progress with wins over WAC foes Nevada and Utah State.

20. Cal Poly - Not the most well-known program, Cal Poly has consistently been competitive in the Big West under coach Kevin Bromley. In 2003 & 2007, the Mustangs were a win away from making the NCAA Tournament.

21. Sacramento State - The Jerome Jenkins era ended on a down note, as the Hornets are coming off one of the all-time bad seasons.. just 2-24 against D1 opponents. From '04 to '06, it looked like Jenkins was making progress, but things regressed quickly.

22. UC Riverside - Since joining college basketball's top flight in 2001, the Highlanders haven't reached impressive heights. But in Jim Wooldridge's first season, there was some hope as UCR won their 2nd ever Big West Tournament game (knocking off Cal Poly).

23. UC Davis - Yet to experience any real success since joining D1 in 2006, the Aggies at least one-up Bakersfield by being full-fledged members of the Big West.

24. CS Bakersfield - Making the move up from D2 without a conference, the Roadrunners 8-21 record isn't half bad. They knocked off Fresno, San Diego, Long Beach State twice, and finished ahead of Sacramento in the RPI. Still, they need another season or two before moving up on this list.

Yesterday: Arkansas

State of '08: The Introduction

Cheerleader of the Day: San Diego State

Shawn Siegel — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:21:23 -0500

Cheerleader of the Day

Thanks to our friends over at Icon Sports Media, we now have access to thousands of great college basketball photos to use on the site. Each day, along with our Picture of the Day, we'll be featuring a Cheerleader of the Day. We'll be mixing up the schools & cheerleader so check back daily!

San Diego State

- Check out past Cheerleaders of the Day!

- Also check out the Picture of the Day!

Daily Dribble: Top 10 Players in the MWC

Shawn Siegel — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:49:08 -0500

Continuing with my conference player rankings, its on to the Mountain West. This list was compiled just before the season started, but some names not listed have gotten off to quality starts: Andrew Henke of Air Force is averaging 15 and 7 after two consistent games. Senior Alvarado Parker is averaging 14 and 10 after two games, including a double-double in a blow out win over Rice. Top 10 Players in the MWC 1. Brandon Ewing, G, Wyoming 2. Luke Nevill, C, Utah 3. Trent Plaisted, C, BYU 4. Wink Adams, G, UNLV 5. JR Giddens, G, New Mexico 6. Lorenzo Wade, F, San Diego State 7. Brad Jones, G, Wyoming 8. Johnnie Bryant, G, Utah 9. Tim Anderson, G, Air Force 10. Kevin Langford, F, TCU Next In Line Ryan Amoroso, F, San Diego State Lee Cummard, G, BYU Tony Danridge, G/F, New Mexico Kyle Spain, F, San Diego State * Richie Williams, G, San Diego State - Williams was on the list originally, but has been removed since he has been suspended indefinitely. * Beas Hamga, C, UNLV - The freshman big man is not ineligible currently, but was originally included in the Next in Line section. The final ranking of the WAC will be up soon.

2007-08 San Diego State Basketball Preview

Joel Welser — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:07:42 -0400

San Diego State Aztecs

Overall Rank: #46

Conference Rank: #2 Mountain West

2006-07: 22-11, 10-6, 3^rd (t)

2006-07 postseason: NIT

San Diego State was already losing their top two scorers. With the late departure of the number three scorer, the Aztecs are sliding down the preseason rankings. However, many pundits are overreacting to the sudden departure and SDSU will still be around the top of the Mountain West Conference. Once the season gets underway and Coach Steve Fisher has a little time to reorganize and refocus his team, they will be a tough out.

Who’s Out:

Brandon Heath averaged 19.3 points, 3.6 assists and 3.8 rebounds. Mohamed Abukar added 15.8 points and 5.8 rebounds. Losing those two would hurt, but losing Jerome Habel and his 10.9 points and team high 6.2 rebounds per contest has brought up the dreaded rebuilding word. Little used David Velasquez will also not be suiting up for the Aztecs during the 2007-2008 campaign. Despite the losses, the team has plenty of talent to work with. The question is how well can they come together and step up into the bigger roles left behind by Heath, Abukar and Habel.

Who’s In:

Ryan Amoroso would probably have been starting anyway, but his role under the basket will be increased greatly with the departure of Habel. The 6-8 transfer from Marquette will score from inside and out. Amoroso averaged 5.6 points and 4.0 rebounds two years ago with the Golden Eagles and he will get an opportunity to make a huge impact at San Diego State. Junior college transfer Kelvin Davis might use his experience to work his way into the starting lineup. Davis played at UTEP as a freshman before heading to College of Southern Idaho for one year and should develop into a solid scorer. The frontcourt will add forwards Tim Shelton and Billy White. Shelton and White are a little undersized to play the four, but they will if Coach Fisher needs them to do so. White is either an undersized forward or a big guard, but either way he is a great athlete. Bryan Horton will not be the most talented player around, but he could be a quality shooter off the bench as a freshman. D.J. Gay will be the point guard of the future for the Aztecs. He is a scoring lead guard and is not afraid to shoot when the opportunity presents itself.

Who to Watch:

The perimeter group has some talent returning. Point guard Richie Williams may make too many mistakes, but he did improve as last season progressed. Williams averaged 7.0 points and 4.0 assists as a sophomore. The turnovers will go down with experience and Williams has developed into a decent shooter. Last year he shot nearly 46 percent from long range. The most dangerous scorer on the team is Lorrenzo Wade. Wade is a superb athlete and the former Louisville player averaged 10.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists his first season with the Aztecs. Wade is going to have to be the explosive and go-to scorer for the team if they expect to make the NCAA Tournament. His outside shooting is a little questionable, but he should be able to answer the call and become the leader on the floor.

Final Projection:

Kyle Spain is undersized at 6-5, but he has quietly put together a solid career. Spain averaged 6.6 points and 4.6 rebounds last season and should drastically increase those numbers without Abukar and Habel taking up all the points and rebounds. Chris Lamb earned four starts last year, but the 6-10 center rarely saw the floor. He will get more of an opportunity this year and it will be very helpful if he can handle a larger workload. Jer’Vaughn Johnson is a little smaller at 6-6, but he is incredibly strong and is not afraid to mix it up under the basket. The Aztecs will need everything to go right if they want to win the conference, but they will not have to win the conference to reach the NCAAs. The loss of the top three scorers is big, but it is not as bad as it sounds and SDSU should be disappointed without a postseason berth.

Projected Post-season Tournament: NCAA

Projected Starting Five:

Richie Williams, Junior, Guard, 7.0 points per game

Kelvin Davis, Junior, Guard, DNP last season

Lorrenzo Wade, Junior, Forward, 10.5 points per game

Kyle Spain, Junior, Forward, 6.6 points per game

Ryan Amoroso, Junior, Forward, DNP last season

Complete Top 144 Ranking | 2007-08 Preview | College Basketball Schedule | Discuss the Preview

Expert Predictions: Wisconsin at Ohio State Edition

CHN — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 12:35:09 -0500

Experts Picks

CHN experts predict four of the weekend's biggest and closest games:

#8 Pittsburgh at #12 Georgetown

Saturday, 2, CBS

#22 BYU at SDSU

Saturday, 6

Kentucky at #21 Vanderbilt

Sunday, 2

#2 Wisconsin at #1 Ohio State

Sunday, 4, CBS

Jeff Borzello

Hoyas are one of the hottest teams in the country, and Pitt doesn't have the size to match-up without Aaron Gray.

Georgetown

BYU faces a tough final stretch, beginning with Brandon Heath and the Aztecs, who have won six of seven.

San Diego State

Battle for 2nd place in the SEC. Vandy's wings, Derrick Byars and Shan Foster, will be too much for UK.

Vanderbilt

One of the best games of the season. Both have struggled (relatively) lately, but OSU has Greg Oden and is at home.

Ohio State

Jason Brubaker

Hoyas are on a roll lately, and they have the size to negate Gray inside and give Pitt trouble. Look for Jeff Green to have a big game.
Georgetown

SDSU pulled off big home win last time a ranked team visited, will do the same again here. Heath leads the way in big victory.

San Diego State

Memorial is one of toughest road venues
in SEC, and Vandy is playing with confidence. With UK prone to slow starts, Vandy could jump on them early.

Vanderbilt

Badgers are more veteran team, but Oden and company are meshing quickly. With Oden closer to full strength, Buckeyes will ride him to a big win.

Ohio State

Shawn Siegel

Aaron Gray might not play, but even if he did I get the sense we'd all pick the Hoyas anyways.

Georgetown

BYU hasn't been a Top 100 RPI away from all season.. I think that trend will continue this weekend.

San Diego State

Call this a gut pick.. I like the Wildcats taking over 2nd place in the East. The play of Joe Crawford will determine the outcome.

Kentucky

#1 vs #2 should be epic right? But it won't be, Buckeyes win with relative ease.

Ohio State

Eric Silver

The Panthers are playing mediocre basketball right now. The Hoyas are on a roll. Even if Gray plays, Georgetown wins by nearly double digits.

Georgetown

I have to go with homecourt despite the Cougars' earlier 22 point win over the Aztecs. San Diego State in a tight one.

San Diego State

I haven't been overly impressed with the Wildcats all season, and I love the fact that upstart Vanderbilt is ranked and big, bad Kentucky isn't. Vanderbilt gets the W.

Vanderbilt

Tucker isn't the key for UW on Sunday; Taylor is. OSU's guards can contain him. The Badgers are nowhere near the team on the road they are at home. The Buckeyes prevail in a down-to-the-wire battle.

Ohio State

Jason Tomassini

The Hoyas last loss was at Pitt and the Big East lead is on the line. Game of the year in the conference. Georgetown is more athletic at every position and they should defend the home court.

Georgetown

The Aztecs really need this one and Heath should get his points. But the Cougars have won 8 straight and have been strong on the road in conference.

BYU

knows how tough it is to play the Dores at home and Vandy got the let-down game out of the way already. Foster and Byars should be too much.

Vanderbilt

Bo Ryan frightens me and he can’t be pleased after the Michigan State loss. Nobody is too impressed by the Buckeyes even though they keep winning, but they’ll fall short in this one.

Wisconsin

Predicting Record

Brubaker (24-16), Siegel (23-17), Borzello (19-21), McNeill (14-9), Silver (11-5), Tomassini (8-8)

Check the archive of Expert Predictions.

Joel Knows: Weekend Review

Joel Welser — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 12:05:48 -0500

Joel knows Austin Peay took a giant step towards winning the Ohio Valley Conference championship by beating second place Samford on the road 52-50. The Governors now have a three game lead on Samford with just four conference games remaining. Drake Reed and Fernandez Lockett scored 31 of the team’s 52 points and Austin Peay is just one win away from clinching a berth in one tournament or another.

Joel knows Central Connecticut State had a similar win against Quinnipiac. CCSU beat Quinnipiac for the second time in less than two weeks on Saturday and now stands 12-1 in Northeast Conference play. The Bobcats are in second place, but at 9-5 it will take a miracle for Quinnipiac to win the conference, or for Central Connecticut State to lose it.

Joel knows Ohio isn’t the best team in the MAC and Northern Illinois isn’t the worst, but that is what the RPI said heading into the weekend. Yet, when Northern Illinois headed to Athens, most still did not expect a close game. Despite committing 23 turnovers, the Huskies held off a late Ohio run to surprise the Bobcats 81-74.

Joel knows San Diego State isn’t out of the running yet. The Aztecs have already taken their lumps by losing to the top three teams in the conference on the road. They beat Air Force at home this week and have UNLV and BYU still to come. Not only can the Aztecs still get an NCAA Tournament berth, they can still win the Mountain West Conference title. With UNLV, Air Force and BYU all in the top 25 of the RPI, there are tons of opportunities for San Diego State to pick up some quality wins. And that means the MWC could end up with four teams dancing.

Joel knows it must be stressful being an Oklahoma State fan. The Cowboys went to double overtime against Texas Tech over the weekend, making it a total of eight overtime periods for the Cowboys on the season. It may be stressful, but it at least it ends well. Oklahoma State has won all four of their games that have gone to an extra session, or two, or three.

Joel knows Mississippi’s stay at the top of the SEC West could last longer than one would expect. Every team left on their schedule is beatable, but trips to Arkansas and Alabama could quickly turn back the tide on the Rebels. However, Ole Miss has beaten Arkansas and Alabama at home already this season and nothing in the SEC West can be considered surprising at this point.

Joel knows the Big Ten bubble teams didn’t help their cause on Saturday. The Big Ten really has five teams on the bubble (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue). Illinois, Iowa and Purdue all had good showings against the big three in the conference, but moral victories won’t get them into the NCAA Tournament. Michigan State took a much need weekend off and Michigan was the lone bubble squad to take on a lower level team. Yet, the Wolverines struggled to put away Minnesota on their home floor en route to a pedestrian 82-80 victory and they’ll need to play better to get wins with Michigan State, Indiana and Illinois coming up.

Joel knows Butler might not even win the Horizon. And with the second round and semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament at the #1 seed’s home court and the championship at the highest remaining seeds floor, the battle for the #1 seed is a big, big deal, well at least for Wright State. Wright State knocked off Butler 77-65 on Saturday to take a half game lead in the standings. Assuming both teams win out and finish at 14-2, and the schedule does favor WSU over Butler in that regard, the tie-breaker would come down to who is having a more disappointing season…Illinois Chicago or Wisconsin Milwaukee. The battle for seventh place has never been so interesting. The Horizon tie-breaker goes down the standings and compares the two tied teams with each team in order of finish. WSU lost to UWM and Butler lost to UIC, thus if UIC finishes ahead of UWM, Wright State gets the #1 seed, and if UWM finishes ahead of UIC, Butler gets the #1 seed. And there is more, if UIC and UWM tie in the standings, we go to the RPI. Confused yet? At the moment, UWM and UIC are both 5-8 and they do play each other on February 21st in Chicago...which is good news for Wright State. I think.

Joel knows not why anybody bothers to play in, or watch, the Pro Bowl. I miss football and all, but that won’t hit me until April. And college football starts just 150 days after the national championship game. That is 201 days from today if you are keeping track.

San Diego State 74 - LMU 63

Press Release — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 03:00:00 -0500

San Diego, CA (Dec. 16) - The non-conference match-up between San Diego State and Loyola Marymount looked to be a up and down battle Saturday night in San Diego. However, the Lions went over nine minutes with just three points and one field goal as they went down double digits and could not recover, falling 74-63 at Cox Arena.

Senior Brandon Worthy finished the game with 22 points and five rebounds Matthew Knight added 16 points and five rebounds while Adoyah Miller had 10 points. The Lions fall to 7-5 while SDSU improves to 10-2.

With 11:07 remaining in the first half, Worthy tied the score at 17 with a steal and transition basketball. However, the Lions would go through another scoring drought. They would hit just one field goal and score just three points in a nine-minute span as SDSU took a 33-20 lead on a 16-3 run.

Worthy ended the run with a three-pointer 1:50 remaining in the half as they trailed 35-25 at the break.

Aztec leading scorer Brandon Heath, who was held to just one field goal and six points in the first half, exploded to lead SDSU with five straight points and a 15-point lead just two minutes in to the second half. Heath would score 19 second half points to finish with a game-high 25 points.

The Lions cut the lead to nine, 47-38, on a three by Miller with 14:29 remaining. SDSU would go on another run, this one 16-4 over six minutes to go up by as many as 21.

It was far from over as the Lions attempted yet another comeback. To theshock
of the 6,033 in attendance, the Lions went on an 18-3 run in six minutes to cut the lead to six. In the run freshmen Shawn Deadwiler II hit a long jumper to make it 64-52 and Worthy's three-pointer with 2:55 remaining made it a 64-57 game.

After a pair of free throws by Mohamed Abukar, who had 17 points, Worthy hit another three pointer to make it 66-60 with 2:29 remaining. They got no closer as San Diego State held on.

LMU's shooting woes continued as the shot just 32 percent for the game. In the five losses this season they are shooting 32 percent and averaging 59 points per game, while scoring 72.9 points and shooting 45 percent in the seven wins. San Diego State finished the game shooting 51 percent and outrebounded the Lions 40-29.