SDSU Fails to Grasp Game’s Fine Points

The objective in basketball is to put the ball in the hoop and prevent the other team from doing the same.

Two games into the season, San Diego State has done a better job with the second half of that equation.

That was true Saturday as the Aztecs lost to James Madison, 56-53, in the consolation bracket of the Maui tournament at Lahaina Civic Center.

The Aztecs held the Dukes (1-1) without a point over the final 4:43, but it was their own inability to score during two long stretches and their failure to take advantage of three chances to tie the game with three-point shots in the last 21 seconds that sent them to their second defeat in two days.

The loss dropped the Aztecs (0-2) into the seventh-place game today at 2 p.m. PST, when they will Chaminade, a 70-53 loser to Evansville late Saturday.

“(The problem) was our inability to play and execute the offense,” SDSU Coach Jim Brandenburg said. “We have to learn to stay in the offense, get the ball where we want it, when we want it and to who we want it.

“We are not playing great defense, but we are playing respectable defense. It’s our offensive execution that is killing us.”

That was never more clear than during two long scoreless spells. The first lasted seven minutes 11 seconds and stretched over the end of the first half and beginning of the second. The second covered 7:40. That’s almost 15 minutes in a game that lasts 40.

The Aztecs wasted a total of 21 possessions during those stretches, committing 11 turnovers and missing 11 shots.

Still, SDSU had three chances to tie the game with a three-point shot.

The first was lost when a 21-footer from the left corner by senior guard Kevin Honaker sailed over the rim and into James Madison hands.

“We got an air ball out of it,” Brandenburg said, “and he is as good a three-point shooter as we have got.”

The second, by junior guard Michael Hudson, missed with 12 seconds left. The Aztecs got another opportunity when the rebound went out of bounds off a James Madison player with eight seconds to play.

Brandenburg called a timeout to set up Hudson for a three-pointer, but that went awry when Hudson broke the wrong way on the inbounds pass. That put the ball in Honaker’s hands again, and his desperation attempt to get off a three-pointer from the top of the key failed when he was called for traveling as time expired.

The Aztecs turned to Honaker and Hudson because two of their best outside shooters, guard Michael Best and forward Vernon Thompson, had fouled out.

Brandenburg said he was surprised that James Madison Coach Lefty Driesell elected to stay in the zone he had used for much of the game.

“The last thing I expected was a zone,” Brandenburg said. “Usually when you have got to defend a three-point shot, you play man-to-man.”

But the Dukes chose to not alter something that worked.

“The coach scouted them (Friday) when Villanova played a one-two-two zone for most of the second half, and that bothered them,” James Madison forward William Davis said. “So we figured we’d try it.”

The Aztecs shot only 44% (22 of 50) against the Villanova zone in a 66-58 first-round loss Friday. They fared worse against the Dukes, shooting 43.3% (23 of 53).

“It gets back to some coordination, some cohesion, some focus and direction, some leadership, some patience, some timing, some execution,” Brandenburg said. “I could probably go on with another 20 words that would be applicable.”

Two games into the season, the Aztecs’ point guards--Arthur Massey and Rodney Jones--have no assists and 10 turnovers between them. That led Brandenburg to turn to Best to run the offense early in the second half, but that ended when Best got into foul trouble. He eventually fouled out with 5:13 to play and the Aztecs trailing, 54-42.

Soon after, SDSU began to rally.

Steve Hood scored the last of his game-high 27 points and the final points for James Madison (1-1) on a basket with 4:43 left for a 56-44 lead. Hood, a junior guard who transferred from Maryland to be reunited with Driesell, was fouled on the play but he missed the free throw. That was the start of Dukes’ problems.

Just as they had done the day before in an 80-79 opening-round loss to North Carolina--when they allowed the Tar Heels to score the final 10 points--the Dukes could not make a free throw.

Against the Aztecs, Hood missed the front end of three one-and-ones in the last 1:33. Add in four turnovers and a missed shot, and that gave Aztec junior forward Shawn Jamison the opening he needed.

After center Marty Dow scored the last of his 12 points to draw the Aztecs to within 56-46 with 4:30 left, Jamison took over. He scored seven points in 1:51 to bring the Aztecs within a three-point shot of a tie at 56-53 with 1:54 to play. But that is where the scoring ended.

Hood tossed up misses on the first of his three one-and-ones, and the Aztecs countered with a Dow miss of a seven-foot turnaround jumper with 1:20 left, and then the misses by Hudson and Honaker.

“What’s the old cliche about kissing your sister?” Brandenburg said. “This one was kind of like kissing a grand aunt who is about 105 years old.

“We had problems with offensive execution, but we still found some ways to hang in the basketball game. We had 24 turnovers, and they still couldn’t shake us. We soundly outrebounded them (32-24), and we defended them pretty well.

“There are a few little gems out there. It is working on our focus and direction as a team that is the important thing now.”