Aztecs shed USD in slim gym
THURSDAY december 8, 2011 volume 97, issue 55 W W W.T H E D A I LYA Z T E C . C O M
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Tapley carried the offense with slam dunk and 23 points Antonio Morales sports editor The San Diego State men’s basketball team was a double-digit favorite coming into its game against cross-town rival University of San Diego, but found itself down by double digits against USD’s Toreros early in the game. SDSU trailed 14-2 at the start, but came back and won 74-62. The win would not have been possible without the strong play of junior guard Chase Tapley, who scored 23 points, and junior forward Deshawn Stephens, who added 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds. The 12-point deficit was the largest the Aztecs have come back from to earn a win this season. SDSU has now won three straight on the road and 20 straight games against schools in California. Tapley was honest when asked about the start of the game last night by SDSU; he called it one of the worst he’s seen since he’s been a member of the program. “Since I’ve been here, yeah, it was pretty bad,” Tapley said. “We started off pretty slow.” Head coach Steve Fisher wasn’t surprised by the way the game started. “This is the kind of game that I expected,” Fisher said. “I’m not so sure our fans expected it, I’m not positive our players expected it. This is what you would expect when you go six miles across town to play a team that knows you and your players.”
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ANTONIO ZARAGOZA, PHOTO EDITOR
Stephens played his best game as an Aztec last night with his near doubledouble. At one point he was 7-for-7 from the field. His contributions were made even bigger because of the health of senior forward Tim Shelton, who was battling knee problems. Fisher told the media after the game that Stephens helped SDSU fight back against the toughness and grit of the Toreros. “We reacquired that (toughness) thanks in no small part, to the best game of his career, from Deshawn Stephens,” Fisher said to the media after the game. Stephens unleashed a rim-rattling dunk on a USD defender, which seemed to wake the Aztecs up from a slow start. Tapley said the dunk ignited the team.
“ I t d i d ( e n e rg i z e u s ) , s e e i n g Deshawn hyped up and our bench getting hyped up, it was just exciting,” Tapley said. “It made us want to play harder.” Tapley scored 25 points against Cal on Sunday and followed that effort up with another stellar performance. His 23 points led all players in scoring and he carried the Aztec offense when others were struggling to score. “I was just feeling it,” Tapley said. “I remember my freshman year we were here and I didn’t get to play that much because I was injured. So I just wanted to come here and put the ball in the rim and that’s what I did.” Sophomore point guard Xavier Thames, who had a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists, said he
was trying to find shots for Tapley because he could tell the junior guard was feeling it. “Chase was on fire tonight, that’s why I kept on looking for him,” Thames said. “He was great tonight.” SDSU now has 12 days off before it plays UC Riverside on Dec. 19. It will be a nice rest for a team that has gone through a grueling 11-game stretch to start the season. Thames’ double-double was the first points and assists double-double in more than ten years. Deandre Moore was the last Aztec player to record one, which was on March 1, 2001. Stephens’ 16 points were a career high. The win was SDSU’s sixth straight against the Toreros.
Fitz and The Tantrums rocked KPRi’s annual holiday concert
T R AV E L & A DV E N T U R E
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With move, SDSU goes big (east) Pres. Hirshman says Big East relocation will bring big changes Antonio Morales sports editor
ANTONIO ZARAGOZA, PHOTO EDITOR
After being a member of the Mountain West Conference since 1999, the San Diego State football team is about to call a new conference home. In July 2013 SDSU will join the BIG EAST Conference as a football-only member. “This change will provide extraordinary opportunity to our student athletes, for our coaches and staff, for our alumni and supporters and for our entire university,” SDSU President Elliot Hirshman said at a press conference yesterday. The Aztecs won’t be arriving alone, Boise State, Houston, Southern Methodist and Central Florida will be joining the conference as well. Boise State and SDSU will be joining as football-only members. There will be a Western and Eastern division in the new BIG EAST. Hirshman said he received a phone call with a proposal to join
the BIG EAST two weeks ago, and that’s when talks began. The conference’s boundaries will spread from one coast of the United States to the other. SDSU Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Jim Sterk noted the benefits of joining a conference with such a wide reach. “A national league captures the attention of fans coast-to-coast,” Sterk said. “With the new members the BIG EAST conference will continue to have the single largest media footprint in college football.” Since the Aztecs reside on the west coast and they’re moving to a conference based in the east, travel cost has been questioned.Sterk said travel won’t be much different than what SDSU faced this season. “Four of our five away games were out of the Pacific time zone,” Sterk said. “So with divisional play, the travel will not be realistically any more than what we experienced this year.” This move will bring the Aztecs more money. Sterk estimated that the school will receive somewhere around $6.4 to 9-10 million a year from the conference’s television contract. That doesn’t include the $1.8 million the conference the school will receive in BCS-money. SDSU was receiving around $1.5 million as a member of the MW.
NEWS Filner reaches for the student vote in upcoming election.
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... I wonder if being a writer just sets you up for a an open oven or a fast, deep river. So, let me indulge ... B A C K PA G E
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