Latrell Davis scored 25 points in his Aztecs debut, Tae Simmons reached his first ever double-double, Bear Cherry muscled his way towards 15 points & 4 blocks, and Elzie Harrington totaled 15 points. It was that kind of good in SDSU’s season opener.
It was a pretty complete victory for the Aztecs Tuesday night when they took down Cal State Fullerton inside Viejas Arena. Even Luca Vincini came off the bench for 10 points and 7 boards in his official debut.
The only bad thing was that more Aztecs fans needed to see it there in person.
But for all the worry coach Dutcher had coming into to Tuesday nights opener, his team backed him up and shut the door on the Titans when it mattered—in the second half.
“We won the game how good teams win games.” Dutcher said post game.
The Aztecs won by rebounding, hitting their free throws, and sharing the ball.
SDSU held a 50-28 rebounding dominant performance against Fullerton and it was a total team effort in doing so on the glass. Tae Simmons lead the team with 11 boards and was focused on doing just that. As a result his points came through to match.
Bear Cherry’s size was too much for the Titans to tie up, leaving opportunities for others like Simmons to really make their mark and contribute in that ways. But this is nothing new from what we’ve seen from the sophomore Simmons. His maturity & physicality should only grow as the season unfolds.
On the night the Aztecs knocked down 82% from the free throw line. That is very good considering they shot a total of 28 of 34 attempts on the night. A large portion of those were taken in the 1st half which clearly showed they were just too athletic for the Titans, and not just a case of home cookin from the refs.
Lastly, Dutcher’s team played together. They were cohesive in ways we had not seen in the exhibitions. 20 to 12 was the assist advantage for SDSU and they did in beautiful fashion.
Breakaway alley-oop from Latrell Davis to Bear Cherry had the Viejas Arena crowd to their feet as Cherry waved his arms in the air to bring them louder. Everyone played together despite losing the lead in the 1st half when it appeared Fullerton was going to have offensive success all night.
To open the 2nd half however, Elzie Harrington came out with 9 straight points to ignite the Aztecs and send a statement from the get go that the Aztecs were just too talented, too big, too quick on this night.
In basketball there are levels to this game and SDSU is just on a different one when compared to the Big West opponent.
But that is where we get into the not so good.
“We weren’t great at times, but for nine new players, they had ten new players, its that time of the year everyones got new teams and were all trying to put it together as quickly as we can.” Dutch reminded us all.
Latrell Davis was absolutely fantastic. He was knocking down threes, getting to the lane for layups and getting his teammates the open looks when they had a better shot.
But the big but on the night is the defense and turnovers. With so many new players, the talk all off season has been the heightened offensive caliber and IQ this team should have. Against inferior talent & budget, this is the kind of spread beating performance SDSU should be expecting to see, despite the quick turnaround of team building.
At times Fullerton guards were making their way to the rim for layups like it was a walk in the park that first half. Meanwhile for all the assists SDSU had together, they also turned the ball over 15 times. Against a much smaller and less athletic Titans team? Yikes.
So should we be marveled by what we saw, or be overly impressed? Are the Aztecs ready to reach the Final Four? No way.
This team has a ton of work to do on both the defensive and offensive end if they plan on competing at their own level in the new Pac-12. This performance while fun and joyous to be a part of, is no where near where this team should expect themselves to be at.
Good thing for us fans Dutcher & company know this too and by the sounds of it will not relinquish their role of hammering the instructions into their team’s minds, the lessons it will take to ascend as high as they can possibly go.
“There’s some growth” Dutcher concluded, “But still a lot more room for growth for this team moving forward.”
The Aztecs next face Colorado this Saturday, November 7th at 12:30pm PST at the Pechanga Arena (San Diego Sports Arena) for the Bill Walton Classic. Tickets can still be purchased with a 20% off promo code: BWC20
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