Dec. 24, 2016
HONOLULU -
SDSU Men's Basketball Game Notes | SDSU Broadcast Flip Card
NEWS AND NOTES
* San Diego State will play for the 2016 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic championship on Sunday for the second time in as many tries after falling in the finale in 2012. The title game vs. San Francisco is set for 3 p.m. HT (5 p.m. PT) on ESPN2, WatchESPN and The Mighty 1090.
* The Aztecs are in the championship after winning two games that took place less than 24 hours apart. SDSU dismissed Southern Miss on Thursday in the opening round, 66-51, in a contest that started at 2 p.m. HT. Then on Friday morning at 11:30 a.m. HT, San Diego State turned a close game into a blowout, downing Tulsa, 82-63.
* SDSU trailed, 8-0, early, but rallied to take a 41-37 lead at the sound of the halftime horn. The score was tied at 52 with 11:08 left in the second half and then the Aztecs unleashed a barrage of three-pointers. With the score level, San Diego State took 10 consecutive treys and made seven. After the seventh, which was Jeremy Hemsley's fifth of the game, SDSU found itself ahead, 73-56, with 5:47 remaining. The Aztecs outscored the Golden Hurricane, 30-11, in the final 11:08 to provide the final margin.
* In the second half alone, the Aztecs shot 53.8 percent, which was their best effort of the season over the final 20 minutes of a game. They also forced a season-high 23 turnovers, 16 of which came off a season-high total for steals.
* The win improved San Diego State's record to 17-2 in its last 19 regular-season games when having less than 24 hours to prepare for an opponent.
* Jeremy Hemsley finished the game vs. Tulsa with a game-high 20 points, which included his 5-for-7 shooting exhibition from behind the three-point arc. It marked his fourth 20-point game of the season and took his scoring average to a team-best 16.6. The sophomore is also shooting a team-high 57.4 percent from three-point distance.
* Hemsley's backcourt teammate, Trey Kell, connected on a trio of triples to post 19 points, while adding a game-high four assists and a career-high five steals. In two Diamond Head Classic games, the junior is averaging 15.0 points and 4.5 assists with one turnover.
* Zylan Cheatham, who had 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds vs. Southern Miss, followed that performance with another solid effort vs. Tulsa. The redshirt sophomore had 15 points, four rebounds and two steals, and enters the title game shooting 57.1 percent from the floor and 88.2 percent from the free-throw line for the tournament.
* San Diego State now has a second chance to help head coach Steve Fisher win this tournament for the second time of his career. In 1992, he and his Michigan team won what was then known as the Rainbow Classic. That season, Fisher led the Wolverines to victories over No. 20 Nebraska, No. 5 North Carolina and No. 2 Kansas.
* The Aztecs are getting a second crack at the Diamond Head Classic title after falling short in 2012. San Diego State downed San Francisco and Indiana State in the first two rounds before falling to No. 3/3 Arizona, 68-67.
* Since the tournament has been named the Diamond Head Classic, which dates back to 2009, San Diego State is the only school to appear in the final twice.
* The Aztecs are making their fifth straight title game at an in-season tournament-style event that features eight teams. The streak dates back to the start of the 2008-09 campaign. In fact, San Diego State has never not made a championship game at any in-season event since 2005-06 when it defeated Southern Miss in the third-place game of the BP Top of the World Classic in Fairbanks, Alaska.