SAN DIEGO — Coach Steve Fisher won his 300th game at San Diego State on Saturday when Xavier Thames scored 24 points to lead the No. 5 Aztecs over Colorado State 65-56.
The Aztecs (19-1, 8-0 Mountain West) won their 18th straight game and are 8-0 in conference play for the first time in the program’s 93-year history.
Jon Octeus scored 24 points for the Rams (12-10, 3-6), who lost their third in a row.
Fisher’s first victory with SDSU came on Nov 24, 1999, 73-57 against UC Riverside. The Aztecs were only 5-23 that season, including 0-14 in league play, but Fisher quickly turned a moribund program into a consistent winner.
The Aztecs are one victory shy of their 10th 20-win season under Fisher.
Playing with their highest ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 since briefly reaching No. 4 in 2010-11, the Aztecs had a fast start against the Rams and were never threatened, taking leads of 11-4 and 25-8.
Winston Shepard converted a three-point play and had a layup, and Thames had a fallaway jumper and a layup in the first six minutes.
Aqeel Quinn, starting in place of Josh Johnson (knee), converted a three-point play, Dakari Allen had a jumper and rebounded his own miss for another bucket, and Shepard made consecutive shots to push SDSU’s lead to 22-8 just 11 minutes in.
Colorado State didn’t reach double digits until Octeus made the first of two free throws with 4:10 left in the first half to make it 27-10. SDSU’s biggest lead, 29-10, came after Allen hit a bank shot.
The Rams then scored 10 points in the final 3:35 to close within 32-20 at halftime.
The Rams pulled to 54-47 with 5:12 left and had the ball before Thames grabbed a big rebound and Shepard had a tip-in with 3:16 left. Quinn hit a jumper about a minute later to make it 58-47.
Octeus was the only CSU player to reach double figures in scoring.
