Franklin shrugs off pain, rescues Aztecs

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State guard Chase Tapley was the first teammate to reach Jamaal Franklin when he injured his right ankle with just more than a minute to play Saturday in the Aztecs' topsy-turvy Mountain West Conference opener against UNLV at Viejas Arena.

"I said, 'Bro, you have to get up. You've got to get up. You're not hurt right now. You can't be,' " Tapley recalled telling Franklin, who had gotten tangled up with Rebels guard Justin Hawkins and tumbled into the front row of photographers behind UNLV's basket. "He did get up, and we really did need him."

Eventually, Franklin limped to the sideline. Moments later, he checked back into the game and gave the Aztecs their ninth win in 10 tries over the Rebels. His layup bounced on the rim and dropped through the net with three-tenths of a second left, the final shot in 22nd-ranked San Diego State's 69-67 victory.

"If my ankle was broke and my team wanted me out there, I'd be out there," Franklin said. "It was a big tweak, but it didn't really hurt because the adrenaline was going."

On the decisive play, Franklin set a screen at the top of the key for point guard Xavier Thames. UNLV's Oscar Bellfield, who was guarding Thames, and Mike Moser went with Thames.

The point guard took both defenders left and gave the ball back to Franklin at the top of the key. Franklin drove left as Moser tried to recover and got deep into the lane for the winning shot.

"Xavier got me open, and I knew time was running out," Franklin said. "My jump shot hadn't been falling, so I knew I had to get to the rim. I was going to try to draw a foul, but Anthony Marshall stepped up and tried to draw a charge, so I just sidestepped and got it in the basket."

Bellfield almost thwarted the play before it began, as he momentarily knocked the ball away from Thames in the backcourt. The point guard quickly recovered and set up the final play.

Bellfield said it was just a matter of poor communication on defense. It appeared he was supposed to switch and stay with Franklin on the exchange.

"We will have to talk better next time," Bellfield said. "We should have switched to where he stayed with my man and I stayed with his."

Twelfth-ranked UNLV (16-3) probably would have been better organized on defense had San Diego State (15-2) elected to call timeout. But Aztecs coach Steve Fisher thought it was better to let the play materialize after Rebels center Brice Massamba tied the game by making 1 of 2 free throws with 23 seconds left.

"That was just Jamaal making a play," Fisher said. "I didn't want to take a timeout because I didn't want to let them start talking about 'Now, we're going to do this when Xavier comes off that top ball screen.' All of a sudden you look up and Jamaal's got the ball, and he knew, I knew, they knew, he wasn't going to give it up."

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.