Honolulu, HI (Sports Network) - Winners of 10 straight games, the 18th-ranked
San Diego State Aztecs are back in action on Sunday as they challenge the
Indiana State Sycamores in the semifinal round of the Diamond Head Classic at
the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.
Since losing to Syracuse in the season opener, the Aztecs have been
unstoppable, winning the majority of their games by double digits. On
Saturday, it was more of the same for San Diego State as it dismissed San
Francisco by a comfortable 80-58 margin. Not only are the Aztecs enjoying a
10-game win streak at the moment, the fourth-longest in program history, but
the squad has also won 23 consecutive games played in the month of December,
the second-longest run in the nation.
As for the Sycamores, they were stretched beyond 40 minutes on Saturday, taken
to overtime by Ole Miss, where they eventually slipped by in the 87-85 final.
The win was the second in a row and the second overtime affair for the program
in the last four outings, the other being a 77-68 loss to New Mexico, another
Mountain West Conference foe, earlier this month.
As far as the all-time series is concerned, the Sycamores have won all three
previous encounters with SDSU, although the teams have not met since 1967. The
Aztecs have an all-time record of just 10-29 versus teams from the Missouri
Valley Conference.
The winner of this meeting will go up against the survivor of the
Arizona/Miami-Florida contest in the title game on Christmas Day.
Indiana State knocked down all six shots at the free-throw line in overtime,
including a pair of Jake Odum with 11 seconds remaining in order to give the
team enough of a lead to hold on for the two-point win against Ole Miss. Odum,
who accounted for all six of those conversions at the charity stripe in the
extra session, finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and eight assists as
all five starters scored in double figures. Manny Arop tallied a team-best 27
points, Justin Gant and R.J. Mahurin 12 apiece and Dawon Cummings 10 points.
Gant also hit the glass for a team-best 11 rebounds as well. Odum, now 58-
of-77 (.753) at the charity stripe, is scoring a team-best 15.6 ppg and is
also first on the team with 42 assists and 13 steals over nine starts. Arop
(13.4 ppg) accounts for close to seven rebounds per game, but isn't nearly as
efficient passing the ball with a mere five dishes, against 24 turnovers at
the moment.
Chase Tapley was the star of the show for the Aztecs on Saturday as he
exploded for a career-high 33 points in the easy win against San Francisco,
yet another team from the state of California that SDSU has conquered. Tapley
made good on 13-of-19 shots from the floor, including 6-of-10 behind the 3-
point line as the team converted 10-of-19 on the perimeter. Jamaal Franklin
was back in action and scored a conservative 11 points, to go along with seven
rebounds, five assists and a couple of steals, while Xavier Thames and Deshawn
Stephens tacked on 10 points apiece, the latter adding a team-best eight
rebounds as well. Tapley, the leading scorer for SDSU in three of the last
four games, is now up to 15.8 ppg as he converts 48.3 percent of his shots
beyond the arc, compared to 48.7 percent from the floor overall. Franklin
leads the group in both scoring (17.8 ppg) and rebounding (9.4 rpg) which is
to be expected for a player who is regarded as the best in the league this
season.
The Sports Network
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