San Diego State will return to the Mountain West tournament championship game after their 63-58 win over Colorado State Friday in Las Vegas.
In their third matchup this season, the third-seeded Aztecs survived a late push by the No. 2 Rams that drew Colorado State within two points with 18 seconds to play. But Adam Seiko buried three free throws in the waning seconds to give SDSU a slot in the MW title game for the fifth straight year.
They will meet top-seed Boise State for the conference crown at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Colorado State opened hot, and on perfect 6-for-6 shooting jumped out to a 14-7 lead. But after the Rams’ first miss, by Isaiah Stevens, SDSU marched back with a three-pointer by Seiko, followed by a layup by Aguek Arop.
Arop got another chance off a Joshua Tomaić steal from David Roddy, hitting a three-pointer to give the Aztecs a 15-14 lead.
They didn’t relinquish it, aided by Nathan Mensah’s two dunks and Tomaić, who hit two threes of his own – just his ninth and 10th of the season – as SDSU went into the break up 35-26.
“We got contributions from a deep bench and that was important,” coach Brian Dutcher said.
San Diego State established the lead despite being beset by turnovers again, just as they were in their quarterfinal win over Fresno State. They committed nine, leading to 10 Colorado State points in the first half.
The Rams cut the lead to five on their return to the court, on shots by Roddy and John Tonje, but the Aztecs built it back to 41-30 on jumpers by Trey Pulliam and a layup by Arop.
The game tightened though down the stretch and with less than a minute to play, Roddy missed a free throw, but he dunked off a rebound by Tonje to cut the lead to 57-55.
But after another Arop layup, and a Seiko free throw, Stevens drew his team close again with a three to make the score 60-58. Seiko then hit two free throws with 10 seconds left, before Stevens attempted another three, this one off-target. After a foul by Roddy, Seiko added another free throw for good measure.
Pulliam led the Aztecs with 11 points, on another night when Matt Bradley, who only scored five, was contained.
But Bradley, his main offensive threat, Dutcher said, has “played enough to realize that when all attention has turned to him someone else is open.”
Seiko had 10 points and Arop and Mensah had nine each. Roddy topped all scorers with 22.
Prior to the Aztecs’ game, Boise State earned their spot in the MW final with a 68-61 win over No. 4 Wyoming.
SDSU lost both their games against the Broncos this season, including a 58-57 heartbreaker last month.
Updated 12:25 a.m. March 12, 2022
