By Jared QuientSenior Staff Writer
Living up to the stereotype, UC San Diego had no fun on Saturdaynight. San Diego State had its way with the Tritons, defeating them80-48 in its season opener in front of 4,296 fairly raucous fans atCox Arena.
Following the optimism that has surrounded the Aztecs’ trainingcamp and exhibition games, a convincing victory on opening night wasjust what this young team needed. Head coach Steve Fisher summed upthe trouncing quite appropriately.
“I liked this game,” Fisher exclaimed.
Leading the way for SDSU was junior college transfer RandyHolcomb, who scored 15 points despite a poor shooting night.
“I am just happy to get a win,” Holcomb said. “We didn’t have thebest night shooting, but knowing that we can win a game by this muchis a good sign.”
Said Fisher: “He needs to get inside more than he did tonight.Part of his strength is the ability to slash and attack the basket.”
With newcomers like Holcomb and Karlo Kovacic shooting and scoringearly, attention was taken off returning starters Marcelo Correa andMyron Epps. Correa benefited most from the abundance of scorers,making all six of his shots.
“We have more players that can score this year,” said the6-foot-10-inch center. “Teams are going to have a tough time guardingour big guys when there are others who can score.”
UCSD never really had a chance. SDSU went on runs of six and 12points to open up a 35-18 half-time lead. The Tritons tried to liveby the three, and died. They did make six three pointers in the firsthalf, but that accounted for all 18 of their points.
For the Aztecs, one statistic spells the difference between thisyear and last. SDSU had 23 assists Saturday night and had only 10unassisted baskets.
“We’re an unselfish team,” Fisher continued. “But we’re also abetter passing team than we were last year.”
Whilethe game was positive in virtually all aspects for the Aztecs, thereis still much work to be done. One of the biggest concerns going intothe season was rebounding, and due to the lack of size, it willcontinue to be a concern.
“Our rebounding was decent, but we should have done better,”Correa said. “We definitely have some things to work on.”
The Aztecs held a 38-29 rebounding edge over UCSD, but it shouldbe noted that the Tritons didn’t have a player over 6-foot-7. Fisherscheduled the Tritons with a purpose: to work through the openinggame mistakes while still getting the confidence of a victory.
“You look across the country and you see everybody in Americaplaying non-Division One teams,” Fisher said. “For us to have theability to do that with our next door neighbors is good for bothteams. They will learn from it and so will we.”
SDSU will face its first test of the young season on Tuesday, whenNew Mexico State comes to town. The Aggies, who beat the Aztecshandily last year, should give a pretty good idea where this team is.
“Our next game will show us how good we really are,” Holcomb said.”We need to play a lot better against New Mexico State to get avictory.”
No matter what happens against the Aggies though, one thing is forcertain — this team is going to have some fun.
By the numbers
4 — Number of Aztecs in double figures
9 — Consecutive Opening game wins for Steve Fisher
12 — Number of SDSU steals
32 — Largest SDSU margin of victory since December 2, 1998
888 — Cost of a semester of tuition at SDSU. Sophomore SeanHoffman got a standing ovation from the crowd, as well as a freesemester of higher education by swishing a half court shot during thehalf-time show
