San Diego State held off a pesky and shorthanded Nevada team Sunday for a hard-fought 65-63 win at Viejas Arena.
Nevada (9-12, 3-7 Mountain West) which had lost four in a row coming into the game and lacked the services of standouts Grant Sherfield and Warren Washington, nonetheless found themselves within two points of the Aztecs with less than a minute to play.
Lamont Butler hit two free throws to put SDSU up by four, but Desmond Cambridge Jr.’s jumper evaded Nathan Mensah to make it 64-63 with 19 seconds left. Cambridge fouled Matt Bradley on the return up court, but the guard made only one of the free throws, giving the Wolf Pack a shot at an outright win.
Will Baker, though, while trying to make a three-pointer, backed up too far. His foot went just out of bounds on the attempt, giving San Diego State (13-6, 5-3 MW) the ball with a second left to seal the much-needed win, after the team’s gut-wrenching loss Friday.
“We found away to gut one out. We made just enough plays,” coach Brian Dutcher told XTRA 1360.
The Aztecs twice found themselves trailing by 13 early, before they climbed back to tie the game at 24, taking advantage of 12 Wolf Pack turnovers.
SDSU rode a a 19-2 run on the way to holding a 28-27 advantage at the half, powered by Bradley with 12 points and Joshua Tomaić, with five.
After the break, the teams played tight as Bradley, after a cold start on his return to the court, kept the Aztecs close.
He didn’t score his first points of the period until almost nine minutes had ticked off the clock, but then he began raining threes on the Wolf Pack as SDSU built an eight-point lead.
It evaporated though, and at the five-minute mark, Nevada was again within one, at 58-57. But the Aztecs again jumped ahead by five, following two free throws by Bradley and Nathan Mensah’s first basket of the game, with 2:59 to play.
San Diego State then held on, despite going without a field goal for the remainder of the game.
Bradley finished with 26 points, while Cambridge led Nevada with 18.
SDSU travels north to play San Jose State at 8 p.m. Wednesday, then returns home at 5 p.m.. Saturday to host Air Force.