The San Diego State and University of San Diego men’s basketball teams continued something last night which has been going on now for quite sometime.
A rivalry.
The dictionary defines the word “rival” as one who tries to equal or surpass.
In the last eight meetings between these two schools, the Aztecs have neither equaled nor surpassed. In fact, SDSU dropped seven out of the last eight games to their crosstown rivals, including the last four.
The four-game losing streak however, would get thrown to the way side in this one, as SDSU finally broke through against the Toreros, defeating them by a score of 87-70 Sunday night at the San Diego Sports Arena in front of 2,484 fans.
“We were looking foward to this game and we wanted to come out and perform well,” Aztec point guard Jason Richey said. “We went to the USD-Pacific game and their fans were running off at the mouth, shouting ‘Aztecs suck,’ and it got me pretty intense for this one.”
SDSU’s intensity shined through as they showed USD (2-3), a team which lost by just seven against Kansas a week ago, a few wrinkles which it hadn’t seen in previous meetings. Those wrinkles were its new and improved pressure defense and the backcourt combination of Richey and Chad Nelson.
The Aztecs’ pressure defense forced the Toreros to 19 turnovers and many quick shots.
“I saw them on tape, and we knew the style of pressure defense which they played,” USD head coach Brad Holland said. “We just didn’t handle the pressure. It bothered us out on the court.”
While the Toreros were busy getting forced into turnover after turnover, SDSU was going on a long-distance shooting binge. And the man spear heading the attack upon the three-point line was Richey.
The junior-college transfer would knock down five out of seven from the arc in the first half on his way to a career-high 27 points.
“Our guards kept tremendous pressure on them the entire game,” SDSU head coach Fred Trenkle said. “All in all, I’d say the guards were the difference in this one.”
Indeed they were as the backcourt of Richey and Nelson would combine for 47 points, outscoring the Toreros starting guards by 23.
Coming into the game, the match-up at the point between Richey and USD’s Alex Davis was supposed to be an even one, with the two canceling each other out.
But in the end, the feeling with Davis was anything but equality in the backcourt.
“I gave it my best tonight and he just beat me. I’m not afraid to admit that,” said Davis, who led the Toreros with 20 points, most of which came late in the game after the Aztecs had accumulated a 20-point lead. “You can go out and say that you are going to stop a player, but when you get in a game, it’s just not that easy.” Someone else which USD had a hard time stopping was junior forward Roy Kruiswyk. He was a surprise starter for the Aztecs in this one after Jacobi Thompson and Amiri Johnson were suspended for the game when the two missed practice. However, it would be anything but a pleasant surprise for the Toreros. As the 6-foot-8 forward from British Columbia would make the most out of his first start in an SDSU uniform.
Kruiswyk responded with 13 points and seven rebounds in 36 minutes of play, easily his most significant amount of playing time this season.
“Roy actually represented a better match-up in this game for us with the height USD had,” Trenkle said. “It was a little tough for him in the first few games because he had a cast on his right thumb and this was his first game without it. I thought he played well.”
Meanwhile the Aztecs continue to play well as they raise their record to 4-1, their best start since 1984-85.
“We’re off to a good start this season,” Richey said. “This is a totally different team from last year and we work real well together.”
