San Diego State eased past Fresno St. with a 58-47 victory Tuesday night at Viejas Arena, and avenged a loss that occurred at Fresno St. on Jan. 3.
“This was a good team victory and I’ll underline team. It was spearheaded by how we guarded and rebounded the ball,” coach Steve Fisher said in the post-game press conference. “It was a good opportunity to get back at a team that beat us.”
Four Aztecs scored in double figures, including, senior guard Aqeel Quinn (16 points), senior forward J.J. O’ Brien (12), junior guard Winston Shepard (11) and junior center Angelo Chol (10).
“We haven’t scored a lot of points in some games so it’s hard (for someone) to score in double-figures if you don’t score many points,” Fisher said. “It was nice to see that we had a lot of guys with opportunities that took advantage of them.”
For Chol, the 10 points matched a career high, and he credited the team’s loss to Colorado St. over the weekend to help fuel his fire.
“Last game I didn’t play (well), so I thought I had to make something happen today,” Chol said at the post-game press conference. “I have to help the team somehow. I was mad the past two days, so I had to make something happen today, and help the team.”
Unlike when these teams last met, the Aztecs were in control for most of this match, despite 17 turnovers, 11 of which were combined between Shepard and Quinn.
SDSU (16-5, 6-2) led 32-22 going into the half, and never looked back, helping extend their streak to 14-0 this season when leading at the midway point.
The Aztecs also showed their resiliency by winning their 15th game in a row when coming off a loss.
SDSU will stay at home to play Utah St. this Saturday at 5 p.m., and the game can be watched on CBS Sports Network.