Jan. 6, 2016
Final Stats | USATSI Photo Gallery
San Diego, Calif. --- Ryan Welage and Princeton Onwas both went for career-highs in scoring, but San Diego State's length and the duo of Winston Shepard and Zylan Cheatham guided the Aztecs to a 77-62 victory at Viejas Arena Wednesday night.Onwas was the most dominate player on the floor in the first 20 minutes, hitting 7 of 10 shots, including three from beyond the arc. Welage was his running mate, adding 11 first-half points with shots coming from all over the floor.After SDSU took an 11-point lead with 3:36 left in the half, Onwas answered with two straight buckets. Welage pitched in with a fade-away jumper at the top of the key, and then with the clock winding down, Onwas sank another three from NBA range, making it 37-35 SDSU lead heading into the locker room.Shepard was the most dominant player in the final 20 minutes. He scored 10 of his 17 points in the second half, and slowly helped the Aztecs pull away over the course of the second half. He got the bucket and converted the free throw to put SDSU up eight, and brought 12,414 at Viejas Arena to their feet with another and-one at the 8:51 mark making it 65-48.Shepard finished with 17 points. Jeremy Hemsley matched a season-high 20 points for the third time this season to lead SDSU. He put in 13 points during the first 20 minutes. Zylan Cheatham scored 10 of his 17 in the second half and Trey Kell also finished in double-figures with 10 points.Welage hit the first two baskets of the second half for the Spartans (5-10, 0-3 MW). His three at the 18:20 mark gave SJSU a 40-39 lead. At that point, Welage and Onwas had scored 33 of the 40.San Diego State (10-6, 3-0 MW) kicked it into gear from there, taking a lead that it would never relinquish when Hemsley hit a jumper with 17:58 to go.Onwas and Welage each finished with a game-high 23 points on 50 percent shooting. Gary Williams, Jr., with all seven of his points in the second half, was the third-leading scorer for SJSU.
"They're a lot better, San José State is a lot better," said Aztecs' head coach Steve Fisher. "They've got a lot of youthfulness on that team that their playing, but I like the way they play. They compete hard and they compete together. I don't know how many games they'll win, but they're going to win some games. They didn't give up. We were 12 ahead and it looked like we had a chance to put them away in the first half and they came right back on us. They're significantly better than the [San Jose] teams we've seen in the last two years."
San José State returns home to face Colorado State, who defeated UNLV on Wednesday, for a 2:00 p.m. tip inside The Event Center.
Newspaper Box Score
San José State vs SAN DIEGO STATE
01-06-16 7:01 pm PST at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena
At Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena
SAN DIEGO STATE 77, SAN JOSé STATE 62
SAN JOSé STATE (5-10 (0-3 MW))
Onwas, Princeton 8-16 4-6 23; Welage, Ryan 9-18 2-2 23; Williams, Jr., Gary
2-5 3-4 7; Rogers, Frank 1-6 0-0 3; Clarke, Brandon 1-2 0-0 2; THORNTON,
Isaac 0-2 2-2 2; Bahner, Leon 0-1 2-2 2; Schwartz, Cody 0-3 0-0 0; BASOR,
Ivo 0-0 0-0 0; Hillsman, Jaycee 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 21-57 13-16 62.
SAN DIEGO STATE (10-6 (3-0 MW))
HEMSLEY, Jeremy 7-9 2-4 20; SHEPARD, Winston 5-11 6-8 17; CHEATHAM, Zylan
5-7 7-9 17; KELL, Trey 4-11 1-1 10; POPE, Malik 2-4 2-6 7; PEREZ, Ben 1-5
0-0 3; CHOL, Angelo 1-1 1-2 3; WILLIAMS, D'Erryl 0-0 0-0 0; ALLEN, Dakarai
0-3 0-1 0; SPENCER, Skylar 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-52 19-31 77.
San José State................ 35 27 - 62
SAN DIEGO STATE............... 37 40 - 77
3-point goals--San José State 7-26 (Onwas, Princeton 3-6; Welage, Ryan 3-9;
Rogers, Frank 1-2; Thornton, Isaac 0-1; Schwartz, Cody 0-3; Hillsman, Jaycee
0-2; Williams, Jr., Gary 0-3), SAN DIEGO STATE 8-22 (HEMSLEY, Jeremy 4-6;
PEREZ, Ben 1-5; KELL, Trey 1-4; POPE, Malik 1-1; SHEPARD, Winston 1-4;
ALLEN, Dakarai 0-2). Fouled out--San José State-ROGERS, Frank, SAN DIEGO
STATE-None. Rebounds--San José State 31 (Welage, Ryan 8), SAN DIEGO STATE 36
(SPENCER, Skylar 8). Assists--San José State 6 (Thornton, Isaac 2), SAN
DIEGO STATE 12 (SHEPARD, Winston 6). Total fouls--San José State 23, SAN
DIEGO STATE 15. Technical fouls--San José State-None, SAN DIEGO STATE-None.
A-12414