SDSU Looks to Rebound Against St. Mary’s After Loss to BYU
Senior leader Matt Mitchell had a career night with 35 points but that still was not enough for the Aztecs as they suffered the season’s first loss against BYU 72-62 on Friday. The loss drops SDSU outside the Associated Press Top 25, though they are the top team in Others Receiving Votes (No. 26).
It is never a good sign when your leading scorer coming into the game goes 1-9 from the field and finishes with just three points. Jordan Schakel was off the entire night as the Cougars bottled up him up and never allowed him to get into a rhythm.
“It is never a good sign when your leading scorer goes 1-9 from the field”
The entire Aztecs offense was out of sync the first half. Forced into half court sets because of the Cougars success on offense, there was far too much one-on-one action, generally not a strength of Aztecs teams. They dug themselves a halftime hole of 35-20.
State was able to make a game of it thanks to Mitchell’s performance in the second half. He took over offensively showing the ability to score in a variety of ways. Thanks to his 26 second half points the Aztecs slowly chipped away at BYU’s lead. They tied the score 61-61 at the 1:57 mark on an emphatic Mitchell dunk, but that’s as close as it would get.
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Cougars guard Brandon Averette hit a killer three-pointer with 0:54 remaining to give BYU a 66-62 lead and SDSU did not have a response.
BYU outrebounded the Aztecs 40-26 which is a rare sight to see for any Aztecs team.
SDSU gets a chance to bounce back this week versus another tough West Coast Conference opponent. St. Mary’s enters the contest at 8-1 with two easy wins against Mountain West opponents San Jose State (96-61) and Colorado State (53-33).
The Aztecs will meet the Gaels at a neutral site (Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo) for this contest. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday.
