San Diego State, down 17 in the first half, roared back to win by nearly 17 Friday, sending them to the Mountain West tournament title game for the seventh straight year.
Utah State (27-6) started hot, but the Aztecs (24-9) took advantage of a sluggish second half from the MW regular-season champs to prevail 86-70.
They did it largely without Jaedon LeDee, who was lost to foul trouble for long stretches of the game before ultimately fouling out. And the tide seemed to turn again for SDSU thanks to a buzzer beater to end the half by Darrion Trammell.
LeDee acknowledged it “was a tale of two halves,” and told CBS Sports that being battle-tested in March makes his San Diego State “easy in the storm.”
The Aztecs will attempt to defend their 2023 MW tournament title against New Mexico (25-9), which defeated Colorado State, 74-61 in the late Friday game. The championship game, with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament at stake, starts at 3 p.m. Saturday.
For each team, the first half came down to eliminating the big man from the equation, the dueling MW Players of the Year – LeDee for SDSU (he won the media POY vote) and Great Osobor for Utah State (who won the coaches vote).
LeDee left the court with two fouls just four minutes into the game, and the Aztecs stayed close for a time before things tilted hard in Utah State’s favor. He came back after nearly eight minutes off the court with the Aggies in the midst of a 22-2 run, as they doubled up on San Diego State for a 34-17 lead with 7:25 to play.
But when Osobor fouled Jay Pal with 6:23 on the clock, he left the game and the Aztecs didn’t let the chance pass them by.
They closed the half on a 19-5 run, capped with another more-than-timely three-pointer by Trammell to pull SDSU within three at the break, 39-36.
With LeDee mostly sidelined – the coaches, choosing caution, took him out again with just over four minutes left in the half – Micah Parrish led the way with 10 points, bouncing back from a bad night in the Aztecs’ quarterfinal win over UNLV.
The momentum from Trammell’s shot again carried into the second half, as a jumper by LeDee and a three by Parrish brought the Aztecs all the way back, tying the game at 41.
“We had a good stretch to finish the half, which we needed to get back into the game. Are then the second half we came out, played good Aztec basketball and guarded,” head coach Brian Dutcher said.
SDSU also got hot from long distance, with LeDee landing a three and Lamont Butler hitting two. The second, at the 14:49 mark, put the Aztecs up 54-51, a lead that they did not relinquish for the remainder of the game.
Another spillover from the first half – Osobor was a different player after his second foul. Though he led the Aggies with 19 points, he only went 2-for-4 from the field in the second half. Utah State also shot just 32.1% in the half, and 40% for the game, far off their normal MW-leading pace of nearly 50%.
Dutcher didn’t think the Aztecs shut down the Aggies, but “disrupted” them, denying the point guard and forcing them to turn to other options to initiate their offense.
“They’re such a great set play team that if we could disrupt their sets and make them maybe shorten their playbook or run stuff out of character (from) what they’re used to running,
sometimes that’s good for us,” he said.
LeDee, despite fouling out with just over two minutes left in the game, finished with 22 points and eight rebounds. Four other Aztecs ended up scoring in double figures – Butler had 16, Parrish, 15, Reese Waters, 11 and Trammell, 10.
The Aztecs split the season series against New Mexico, losing on the road, but, most recently, winning at home, 81-70 on Feb. 16.
Updated 11:30 p.m. March 15, 2024