In a salute to Native American Heritage Month, the San Diego State Aztecs wore turquoise jerseys for their home game against Savannah State.
They donned unorthodox uniforms, but the Aztecs certainly did not feel blue after putting up 100 points on their unsuspecting foes.
SDSU smothered the Tigers offense and won convincingly 100-67 to improve to 4-1.
The Tigers entered the contest with a reputation of hoisting tons of threes but SDSU wound up turning the tables on the visitors.
Savannah State converted only 10-of-38 shots (26%) from behind the arc.
Senior Matt Shrigley drained five treys in the first half to help the Aztecs open up a 28-point lead by intermission.
Shrigley and Indiana transfer Max Hoetzel each finished with 15 points while Montaque Gil-Caesar chipped in with 12 off the bench.
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"This is a dangerous team stacked full of talent,” said Shrigley, “and we just want to come in and bring energy and knock down jumpers for this team and add on to what everyone else is doing."
“I feel very comfortable,” said Hoetzel who is getting back into the swing of things after hyperextending his knee two months ago. “I love playing for Coach Fisher. As long as I’m playing hard, everything else will fall into place. Now I just have to get my wind back for the time that I missed.”
Point guard Jeremy Hemsley also knocked down a pair of long range shots and tallied 14 points along with a game-high nine assists.
“I liked how we shared the ball,” admitted SDSU head coach Steve Fisher. “We had 22 assists. Jeremy (Hemsley) had nine assists and no turnovers. Trey (Kell) had seven assists and one turnover, and we made that a topic of conversation when we got back from Cal.”
“We’ve got a group of really good young people who are very unselfish,” continued Fisher, “but we were taking too many hard shots. And we took a few tonight, but we did a better job of moving the ball and making one more pass to go from a good shot to a better shot.”
SDSU’s big men owned the paint. Malik Pope and Zylan Cheatham combined for a handful of rim-rattling dunks to the delight of the home crowd.
Cheatham led SDSU with 18 points and eight rebounds while Pope helped the cause with eight points.
All in all, a solid showing from a team that has bounced back from that embarrassing loss to Gonzaga with three straight wins.
Next up is a trip to Chicago for a date with Loyola this Saturday at 1 p.m. PT.
