Aztecs edge New Mexico 81-70 in Mountain West showdown | Top Vip News

Practice? Who needs practice?

The San Diego State basketball team had perhaps its worst practice of the season, perhaps in years, on Thursday ahead of Friday night’s matchup against New Mexico. The exploration team was dominating. The shots resonated off the rim, if they actually hit. The players couldn’t keep the ball. The coaches were yelling.

“We couldn’t beat anyone today,” coach Brian Dutcher lamented afterward, shaking his head. “Thank goodness the game isn’t today.”

Turnovers remained an issue with, gulp, a season-high 20, but the other lapses magically disappeared for arguably the biggest game of the season, an 81-70 win against nemesis New Mexico versus another (very, very loud) packed in Arena Viejas.

“That’s one of the most electric games we’ve had here,” said sophomore forward Elijah Saunders, who was also electric with a personal 8-0 run in just 52 seconds to defeat the Lobos. “It’s been a battle with New Mexico. “We had something to prove on our court.”

That makes it 19 in a row at home, the longest active streak in Division I. And come their only loss here in the last 36 games, 76-67 last year against New Mexico and the lively and agitated guard Jaelen House, or 755 days since someone else won in the 12,414-seat venue.

The 11-point win, six more than projected, pushes the Aztecs (20-6, 9-4) into 15th place in the NET metric and puts them in the conversation when the NCAA Tournament selection committee announces its Top 16 projected seeds. at 9:30 a.m. PST on CBS.

It also keeps them in second place behind Utah State (9-3) in the Mountain West heading into Tuesday night’s game in Logan. If the Aggies lose Saturday at Colorado State, the only other undefeated team at home in conference play, SDSU will be tied for first place with five games left.

“Either way, we’ll play for first place Tuesday at Logan,” Dutcher said, “and that’s a great place to be this time of year.”

The final score doesn’t say it was a three-point game midway through the second half, and the Lobos (20-6, 8-5) had three possessions to tie it. But they failed to score on any of them, and Lamont Butler changed the momentum (and reignited the crowd) by picking out House and going coast-to-coast for a layup.

Then Saunders scored a 3. And another 3. And a one-handed dunk on the break off a lob from Miles Byrd, his roommate.

And that was practically it.

“You kept waiting for them to run, because you know how talented they are,” said Dutcher, whose team led by 11 at intermission and by 13 at the start of the second half. “When they finally got it, we were able to resist it. And that was really fun to see.”

The Wolves figured out what happens when a) you don’t actively double-team LeDee and b) officials actually blow their whistle when he’s mercilessly attacked in the paint. After shooting just three free throws and drawing five fouls from an inexperienced officiating crew in an 88-70 loss at New Mexico last month, he shot 11 and tied 10 with a veteran officiating crew on Friday, finishing with 23 points. and four steals, the most of his career. .

“LeDee is a force,” New Mexico coach Richard Pitino said, “and he’s getting stronger and tougher and attacking harder. He reminds me of Zach Edey (at Purdue). He just makes you hurt him. …he is one of the best players in the country.”

Butler added 13, 11 in the second half. Saunders had 12. Byrd became the first Aztecs player since at least 1996-97 to record four or more blocks and six or more steals in a game. And Jay Pal, a surprise starter in place of Reese Waters, had six points, seven rebounds and three steals as the Aztecs shot a season-high 56.9 percent overall and 7 of 17 from behind the 3-point arc. .

Another crazy stat: The Wolves had a record 14 blocks in the first game…and zero on Friday.

One more stat: SDSU had 20 assists out of six for New Mexico.

“That’s a pretty lopsided statistic,” Pitino said.

House, the man people love to hate, rolled a 3 on the initial possession and turned to yell at the student section that was already harassing him. He finished with 22 points and four steals but five turnovers.

Freshman JT Toppin recorded another double-double (18 points, 10 rebounds). Donovan Dent started after spraining an ankle on the final play of Tuesday’s 83-82 win at Nevada and scored 11 points. But Jamal Mashburn Jr. scored just two, 13 below his season average, on 1-of-10 shooting against an Aztec defense that changed every ball screen to keep a body in front of shooters.

Dutcher hinted they might need another lineup change after a series of slow starts, outscored 58-25 in the first five minutes of the previous five games. And he did, opting for the new combination of Butler, Darrion Trammell, Micah Parrish, Pal and LeDee to give them more size. Waters, who was the Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year at USC but started 23 times this season, came off the bench to score eight points.

It is the fourth different starting group in the last six games.

“They’re such a good rebounding team,” Dutcher said of the Lobos, “that we felt like we needed some time with Jay Pal out there, to try to neutralize some rebounds, they really hurt us a lot in the first game. “We’ve changed the lineup a lot this year and we’ll probably continue to tweak it to try to figure out what’s the best matchup for the team we’re playing next.”

It worked, more or less. The Aztecs were still losing after five minutes, but only 10-7.

However, the reshuffled rotation seemed to give them a boost, and a 20-4 run midway through the first half built a double-digit lead.

The Lobos’ shooting improved in the second half and they cut a 13-point deficit to seven, then five, then three. But they never got close and from there Viejas Arena took over.

“Every time I think it’s the best crowd of the year, the next guy shows up and it’s better,” Dutcher said. “They were here early today because it was a Friday game at 7 o’clock. Colorado State (on Tuesday), they were phenomenal, but they couldn’t get here with the traffic and the game at 6. When we left tonight, every seat was filled and ready to go.

“We are in the shape we are in because we have a big home advantage and we have taken advantage of it.”

Byrd was asked if he knew they would lose it 20 times against New Mexico, would they still win?

“We had Viejas behind us,” he said, “so I was confident.”

Remarkable

Next: Tuesday at Utah State (6 p.m. PST, CBS Sports Network). It’s the fourth of four consecutive Quad 1 games. After that, the Aztecs close with four Quad 2 or lower games… Dutcher hasn’t won at least 20 games in seven seasons as head coach… A team of veteran Mountain West referees worked on the game: Michael Reed, Eric Curry and Michael Irving… There were three technical fouls in the game: on Parrish, on Tru Washington of New Mexico and on Lobos coach Richard Pitino. It was the second straight game in which the opposing coach got a T… It was the sixth straight game in which SDSU fell behind after five minutes… New Mexico was minus-1 in House’s 34 minutes, the best of the team among those who logged more than four minutes. … Bench score: 25-15, SDSU… The Aztecs led 33:09. There was only a tie and a change of leadership.