For the first 25 minutes of the Cowboys’ road tilt against the San Diego State Aztecs, they looked poised and were in position to possibly pull off a huge upset on the road against a team they haven’t beaten in 11 tries since their last win. The offense was rolling, threes were dropping and the Cowboy defense had the Aztecs looking flustered offensively. But then the Aztecs found their groove offensively and the Cowboys went ice cold a few minutes into the second half and the Cowboys dropped another road game where they were only down by two at halftime, the first coming against a ranked Utah State team earlier this month.
“Overall, we put ourselves in position, but they got into the paint in the second half,” head coach Jeff Linder said postgame. “We will learn from this one and turn around and get ready for the Border War on Saturday.”
The Cowboys found themselves in a hole early, as the Aztecs opened the game with an 11-4 lead. The Cowboys would roar back, though, going on a 8-0 run to take a 12-11 lead off the back of the three point shooting of Sam Griffin and Akuel Kot. Both teams would battle back and forth midway through the first half, as neither team could pull away until the Cowboys would snag a five point lead with four minutes left in the first half at 32-27. The Cowboys couldn’t buy a bucket after that mark, though, as the Aztecs would end the half on a 7-0 run to take a 34-32 lead heading into halftime.
Both Griffin and Kot would open the second half hitting back to back threes as the Cowboys would retake a five point lead at 41-36 early in the second half. This was about the best offense the Cowboys could muster in the second half, though, as the Aztecs would quickly burst out on a 9-0 run to take a 45-41 lead. Brendan Wenzel would hit a pair of free throws to make it 45-43 but the Cowboys wouldn’t get any closer in the second half as the Aztecs would take a 10 point lead midway through the second half. Mason Walters would lay it in down low to make it 55-47, but the Aztecs offense would continue to roll on as they’d jump out to a 72-54 lead with 5 minutes remaining. The Cowboys would fight back with a few made baskets late, but would ultimately lose the game 81-65.
Griffin was again the highlight of the game for the Cowboys, ending the game with 22 points. Walters pitched in a nice effort offensively, scoring 18 points along with Kot scoring 16. Besides these three, all other Cowboys scored 9 points collectively, missing that depth they had offensively against Nevada.
The Cowboys most glaring stat of the entire night was the 15 turnovers they coughed up that the Aztecs were able to convert into 19 points. Conversely, the Cowboys were only able to force 2 Aztec turnovers in which they scored no points off of. The Cowboys did hold an impressive advantage on the glass, grabbing 39 rebounds compared to the Aztecs’ 29. The Cowboys shot a decent 40.4% from the field and 36% from beyond the arc. They allowed the Aztecs to shoot 49.2% from the field but only 26.7% from beyond the arc.
The Cowboys host the Colorado State Rams next in the Border War this Saturday, with the game set to tip off at 2 p.m.
