Jan. 17, 2005
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State sophomore Brandon Heath has been named Mountain West Conference Player of the Week for the period ending January 16. It is his second honor of the season and he joins Josh Davis, Marcus Bailey and Andrew Bogut as the only league players to win the award multiple times in the same season as an underclassmen.
Heath recorded a career-high with 37 points, on 12-of-18 shooting from the field and 12-of-12 free-throw shooting, as the Aztecs recorded an 81-73 victory over Mountain West Conference preseason favorite UNLV on Saturday night. The 37 points were the most for an Aztec player during the Steve Fisher era and the most by an SDSU player in a Mountain West Conference game. It also tied for the 10th highest scoring output in school history and the fifth highest output in a conference game. The last time an Aztec player scored more than 37 points in a game was Anthony Watson's school-record performance of 54 points against U.S. International on Feb. 20, 1986.
Heath added a team-high five assists, two steals and played 39 minutes in the contest. He scored 11 consecutive Aztec points in the first half, helping SDSU erase a six-point deficit. In the second half, when UNLV cut the Aztec advantage to one point, he scored eight straight SDSU points. During a 12-4 run when the Aztecs clinched the victory (run started with SDSU up 61-60 with 6:48 left and ended at SDSU up 73-64 with 2:20 left), Heath scored 10 points and had an assist on the other SDSU basket.
With his second MWC honor, Heath joins Aerick Sanders and Randy Holcomb as the only SDSU players to earn the honor multiple times. He is the first Aztec player, since player of the week records have been kept beginning in 1978-79, to win multiple honors as an underclassman.
San Diego State (8-7 overall; 2-0 MWC), winners of three straight games, opens the home portion of league play this Saturday when the Aztecs play host to Wyoming. SDSU returns home after winning its first two conference road games for just the second time in the school's 35 Division I seasons (other time was in 1984-85 when the Aztecs went on to advance to the NCAA Tournament).
The Aztecs have also become just the eighth team in Mountain West Conference history to win their first two road league games. Of those seven teams that have their first two MWC road contests, five went on to win the league title (either shared or outright), one team finished second and one team finished third.
All-Time San Diego State MWC Players of the Week
2000-01Randy Holcomb 12.18.00Randy Holcomb 1.8.01
2001-02Tony Bland 12.3.01Al Faux 12.10.01Randy Holcomb 1.14.02
2002-03Aerick Sanders 2.01.03Evan Burns 3.3.03
2003-04Aerick Sanders 12.1.03Aerick Sanders 12.22.03Aerick Sanders 1.5.04
2004-05Brandon Heath 12.6.04Brandon Heath 1.17.05