Aztecs outlast Rams on the road for fourth Mountain West Conference win

Malik Pope had another big game in Moby Arena for the Aztecs; two of his best as a collegiate player have come in that building. Wednesday night, he scored 14 points in just 20 minutes. Pope hit both of his three point attempts, both of which were assisted by Trey Kell. He also hit a jump shot from the free throw line area to tie the game at 56 with 3:40 to play. That shot silenced the crowd, and he lifted a finger to his mouth as he ran back on defense to make the accompanying gesture. The super talented sophomore has flashed more and more confidence as each game has gone by since the start of conference play.

Tiel Daniels was a bit of a problem for the Aztecs. He finished with 15 points and shot 5–6 from the free throw line. The Aztecs threw the post double at him several times, and for the most part, rotated out of it effectively. Daniels did not turn the ball over, but his teammates did — 14 times. The final 3 possessions for the Rams resulted in turnovers after Fred Richardson III tied the game at 62 with 1:05 to play.

The Rams, down four, missed a big opportunity to put pressure back on the Aztecs after Malik Pope missed an open dunk with 19 seconds left. (By the way: Pope didn’t make the wrong decision to try for a wide open dunk. When you’re given a free chance at points, you take them. The only problem was that he missed a gimme.) A quick score then by the Rams would have cut the lead to 2 or 1. The Aztecs would have then been sent to the free throw line to extend the lead to 3 or 4. Instead, Winston Shepard made 1 of 2 free throws to extend the lead to 5. The Rams turned it over again and Jeremy Hemsley hit two free throws to cap off his team’s victory.

Giving away a few extra possessions certainly will hurt the Rams even more when they watch the film, knowing they were tied with the favorite to win the conference with one minute to play. Joe De Ciman hit three of his four three pointers late in the second half, the last of which tied the game at 59 with 1:41 to play. The rest of his teammates shot just 2–19 from deep.

The Rams missed some open looks, and the Aztecs would benefit by going back and reviewing them all. Colorado State has shot well this season from deep, but I trust that Boise State’s shooters would feast on those same looks on Saturday. The Aztecs’ three point defense must be dialed in to take down the Broncos. Defenders can’t leave their feet when closing out to a shooter and must also resist the urge to help unless it is necessary.

I began by mentioning Tiel Daniels and his low post prowess. Go-to post scorers are very hard to come by in college basketball, and ultimately, that is why it is so hard for teams to guard them. This is why the Aztecs offense continues to puzzle me. They came out with no clear directive to feed Winston Shepard or Zylan Cheatham in the post; Cheatham has been reduced to a bystander here in conference play. His first step is too quick to not get the ball more often and he is almost always guarded by a slower player.

The team’s offense comes to a screeching halt when they try to script things too much, so I understand why they played Wednesday through their guards. For the most part, the Aztecs kept the ball moving. Trey Kell was fantastic. He only shot 1–8 from three, but I am not concerned at all by that number. He is hunting his own shot without hesitation and now finishing his drives with better shots. Either he or the coaching staff is more confident in his ability to run the pick and roll at this point, which is fine for now, because Jeremy Hemsley has continued to hit his catch and shoot looks from the outside.

Dakarai Allen nailed his only three point attempt in the first half off a drive by Ben Perez, which was a very encouraging sign. Trey Kell and Jeremy Hemsley have really begun to learn to play off one another to form a threatening two-headed attack with both guys capable of spotting up or driving the lane.

Allen will continue to serve as a key piece around those guys for two reasons. First, he is the best dual threat spot up shooter/perimeter defender of the team’s wing players. Second, I fear that Winston Shepard and Zylan Cheatham sharing the court together just won’t work well enough for the team to score because opposing teams will clog the paint and dare them to shoot jump shots. If those two are staggered more often, Dakarai Allen, Malik Pope, or Ben Perez can instead fill one of those spots. Those three guys appear on every scouting report as threats from deep, so their man will stick to them, thus opening up room for Kell and Hemsley to penetrate.

I’ll say this much about Winston Shepard’s 2–9 shooting performance: I don’t care. I don’t care because his three game sample size of playing very well prior to Wednesday outweighs one game in which he didn’t get as many chances from the low post to create for himself or his teammates. To the select group of Aztecs fans ready to jump back down his throat: Don’t forget his three point play with 1:22 left that gave the Aztecs a three point lead. Take that play away, and we might be looking at a different outcome.

The Aztecs will play at Boise State on Saturday on ESPN2, tipping off at 7 PM PST. This is a key matchup between the conference’s two heavyweights. Boise State won its home meeting with the Aztecs last season behind some spectacular outside shooting and terrific effort plays by James Webb III. This time around, the Aztecs will have to take some of those open looks away and step up to challenge Webb with strong drives to the basket and better awareness of his location on the floor.

Stay tuned for a game preview for Saturday’s match up. If you missed this week’s podcast, it is available on YouTube. I discussed reasons for recent team success then previewed Colorado State and Boise State with Jeffery Goodall.

*Originally posted January 14, 2016.