San Diego State, needing to improve on their recent slow starts, instead started even slower Thursday at the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas.
But if their early lags have hampered them, their lax free throw shooting did so late against UNLV in their quarterfinal contest, pushing the game to overtime.
Yet Jaedon LeDee, one of the offenders from the line, scored the final five points – three of them on free throws, no less – with under a minute to go to give SDSU a 74-71 win.
“This team beat us nine days ago … we owed them one,” LeDee told CBS Sports.
The Aztecs (23-9), the No. 5 seed, in denying No. 4 UNLV (19-12), earned the right to move on to face the tournament’s top seed, Utah State, which survived its own challenge in Thursday’s first game. The semifinal starts at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
But to begin, the Aztecs offered up their worst first half of the season. It was salvaged somewhat by Darrion Trammell, who shocked the Runnin’ Rebels by nailing a three-pointer after intercepting a bad inbounds pass as time expired.
The shot left SDSU trailing by just five at 27-22, after the Aztecs shot 27% for the half and missed their first eight three-point attempts.
As a whole, UNLV didn’t shoot much better, just 33%, but four crucial shots from long distance, three of them by Justin Webster, gave them the advantage.
The other three, by Keylan Boone, gave the Runnin’ Rebels their biggest lead, 27-17 with 1:20 left in the half.
LeDee finished the period on the bench with two fouls, but scored nine points. Lamont Butler added six, but UNLV kept SDSU to their lowest scoring first half this season; their previous low was 26 points was against, ahem, Utah State on Feb. 20.
“That was something positive,” LeDee said of Trammell’s shot and how the team responded to it. “We just highlighted that, and we went out in the second half with great energy. I mean, it showed.”
Yes, it did, as San Diego State, led by LeDee, started making some shots. His hookshot, followed by a Jay Pal three, pulled the Aztecs within two at 29-27 less than a minute into the half.
After two more buckets by LeDee, Trammell, with a shot from beyond the three-point line, tied the game at 34. Butler then took it to the basket, as part of a 12-0 run that gave SDSU a 41-34 lead.
It would grow to 10 with less than seven minutes to play, thanks to a Miles Byrd three. But UNLV clawed its way back and though SDSU still led by seven with 1:35 to play, the Aztecs missed free-throw opportunities that could have sealed the win. The most painful? Misses by Micah Parrish that would have given them a four-point lead with 16 seconds to play.
“Micah feels terrible that that game went into overtime,” assistant coach Dave Velasquez told San Diego Sports 760.
And UNLV star freshman Dedan Thomas Jr. did the rest. In the final 31 seconds, he scored three times, including a spinning drive to the bucket to tie it up with half a second on the clock.
Of Thomas, Velasquez said simply, “tip your hat.”
UNLV drew first blood in OT to take a 69-65 lead, but a Trammell layup and two free throws by LeDee knotted it up again.
The Runnin’ Rebels retook the lead on a Rob Whaley Jr. dunk, but the final 50 seconds of the game belonged to LeDee.
He made just five of 10 second-half free throws, but in those waning seconds, he drew the Aztecs within one, 71-70, by hitting one of two. He gave his team the lead with a jumper with :14 left, then landed two more free throws with :02 left.
UNLV went to Thomas in the meantime, but he missed three shots, including a long three at the buzzer that would have sent the game to double overtime. It came close, but bounced harmlessly off the rim.
LeDee scored 34, a SDSU record in MW tournament play. He added 16 rebounds. Thomas led UNLV with 29, 17 of them in the second half.
In other action, Utah State (27-5) narrowly escaped against No. 9 Fresno State (12-21), but took over in overtime to win 87-75. The Aztecs and Aggies split their two meetings during the regular season.
Friday’s late semifinal will match No. 7 seed Colorado State and No. 6 New Mexico, both of which knocked off higher seeds. Colorado State defeated No. 2 Nevada 85-78 and New Mexico took down No. 3 Boise State 76-66.
Updated 11:12 p.m. March 14, 2024