It was almost halftime before the San Diego State men’s basketball team dashed any hopes San Jose State had of winning Tuesday night.
The Aztecs were leading by one point with nearly 5 1/2 minutes left in the first half when redshirt freshman Jalen McDaniels made three consecutive baskets that eventually led to a 26-4 run to rout the Spartans, 85-49, at Viejas Arena.
SDSU (11-4, 3-1 Mountain West) was leading 20-19 when McDaniels made a jumper, a dunk and a shot of a rebound to make it 26-21 with less than four minutes to go before the half.
The dunk by McDaniels with an assist by Trey Kell stirred up the 11,761-strong crowd and invigorated the team.
“It gave us energy. It gave me energy. It gave the whole team energy, “McDaniels said. “After that happened we all picked it up, stepped our game up and I feel like it translated.”
Before the dunk, the Aztecs were playing a game of cat-and-mouse with the last-place Mountain West team. After the dunk, the Aztecs blew open a close game and tore the Spartans (3-13, 0-5 MW) to shred.
The 36-point margin was tied for the second-largest win in SDSU’s MW’s history, trailing only a 39-point win against Wyoming on Jan. 29, 2011.
“I think you only bring it up maybe one time and you know instantly if they are buying in on it or not. I brought it up and I sensed Trey (Kell) was already, ‘Got you on that, Coach.’ They had obviously already talked about losing there last year,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “As a coach you are trying to find ways to motivate your team … trying to find that button to push for that game that might get a little extra response out of your team. So obviously we talked about losing there last year.”
Coming into the game, the Spartans averaged 22.3 turnovers. They had 11 in the first half and 18 to close out the game.
“Their problem is they always run into stretches where they turn it over a few times, and I thought we did a good job when they turned the ball over,” Dutcher said.
Malik Pope and Max Montana led the Aztecs in scoring with 17 points apiece. Devin Watson had 15 and McDaniels added 13 for SDSU.
Montana scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, including a 3-pointer inside the final four minutes of the game.
“We just kept the pressure on them, kept pressing them, got easy baskets,” Watson said. “The defense full court, the pressure, really helped us and really got us going.”
