Aztecs lead at the half
Lorrenzo Wade scored six points to lead San Diego State to a 20-18 halftime lead in the men’s championship game of the Mountain West Conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The Aztecs led for much of the first half in a very low-scoring game.
San Diego State made just 32 percent of its field goal attempts, but the Utes were even worse, connecting at a 27 percent clip.
Lawrence Borha hit a jumper at the buzzer to get Utah back within a basket after the Utes trailed by as many as eight points in the first half.
Utah scored the final six points of the half to cut into the lead.
Luke Nevill has eight points and seven rebounds for Utah.
Amoroso effective
Ryan Amoroso, who at one time appeared to be headed to UNLV, has been a key to San Diego State’s success in the first half.
The senior center held Luke Nevill to just 3 of 5 shooting, but two of the made baskets came in transition.
Amoroso, a Marquette transfer, grabbed 10 rebounds of his own and also added four points.
He made Nevill work very hard on both ends of the floor.
Mehdi Cheriet also provided 13 quality minutes with Billy White in early foul trouble. The box score showed him for only one assist and one rebound, but the France native was solid on defense.
Fan misses opportunity
About 35 minutes before the opening tip, Utah was warming up on the basket nearest the San Diego State band.
It was very quiet in the arena as Utah’s women’s team had just finished celebrating its championship.
One of the members of the band began screaming at Utah’s Carlon Brown to try to get the player’s attention.
After several attempts, Brown finally looked up at the band.
The kid had nothing.
“Why don’t you…,” he paused trying to think of something to really get under Brown’s skin.
Finally, he had it.
“Work on your 3-pointers” the band member quipped.
Wow, real hard-hitting.
Why don’t you work on your heckling?
Hail to the victors
Tim McCormick is doing the color commentary for the television broadcast for this game on Versus.
The retired NBA player once starred at the University of Michigan.
That is also the school that San Diego State coach Steve Fisher led to a national championship.
