Boise State hops Sdsu from the Mountain West tournament, puts Aztecs back in the Blasen-San Diego Union-Tribune

Las Vegas – The state of San Diego won 17 games in a row at Mountain West Men’s Basketball tournament in a row, an incredible performance.

The Aztecs did not do 18, a potentially costly slip.

The defeat of 62-52 against Boise State on Thursday afternoon at the Thomas & Mack Center from UNLV does not automatically mean that they do not get out of the NCAA tournament. But it means the next few days before the selection show will be an unpleasant, anxious helpless experience.

There is nothing you can do now, but wait, watch and hope.

Wait until 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

Take a look at other teams in the proverbial bladder game in your conference tournaments.

Hope you lose.

“Shortly before tip,” opened SDSU coach Brian Dutcher after the game. “I left my third granddaughter in San Diego, so I’m happy about it. At least you make you happy.”

Most of the bladder came in the way with losses by Ohio State, Indiana and Xavier. But Texas A&M, which blows a late lead in overtime in the extension – and then the game in the double – OT – against the Texas based in Bubble is the type of result that raises your stomachs. That came a few hours after North Carolina, another Bubble team, held in front of Wake Forest to keep his hopes on life.

The Aztecs (21-9) defeated the regular series of season against Boise State (23-9), but could not win a third time. And it probably didn’t deserve to be in their fifth game without a 7-foot magon Gwath, the Mountain West newcomer to the year and the defensive player of the year after a abysmal performance in the boards.

The Aztecs exceeded the Broncos 49-44 at the first attempts to shoot. And after offensive bumping up with 18: 3 over points of the second chance.

The Broncos had 13. The Aztecs had four.

“If I only read the numbers, our opponent shot 33% of the field and 27% of 3, I think we would have a pretty good chance to win,” said Dutcher, whose team had a winning series with 28 games when they kept opponents below 35% overall. “But what we got on the board before the game and what we said at halftime had had to happen is that we had to recover. … these chances of the second chance were the difference in the game and we didn’t get enough of them. “

Wachmann Nick Boyd added: “It is up to us to do something about it. Very frustrating. We simply did not run in this aspect of the game, and it ultimately cost us. … if you do such things, you play with fire and we are there. “

After Gwath had not practiced since he put on his right knee on February 22, he came out of the tunnel with his white jersey No. 0, pink sneakers and a black bracket. He warmed up with the team, ran, dribble, shoot Jumpern and worked on Post -Moves.

It was a nice bait. He sat on the bench and never went down.

It could also have backfired in an unexpected way.

Assuming that Gwath would play and knew that on February 15th in the Viejas Arena he blocked six shots in the 64: 47 victory by SDSU, the Broncos coach Leon Rice believed that it was to be expected “the definition of Inanity” that he was expected to expect the rim again-“the definition of insanity”.

So they did the opposite. The team, which shot 10 out of 48 behind the bow in the first two meetings, has used up 3s for no conscience this time. Her first 11 shot attempts were all 3S. They ended with 40 and tied the school-own game record. They only made 16 shots in the sheet, most of them after they had gained insulting rebound under the tire.

“Our style did not agree with her style, so we had to adapt and we had to do this work,” said Rice. “I think our goal was between 36 and 50 3s, … but part of it were the offensive boards. You cannot shoot them when you stand around and see you watching you bounce off. We didn’t do it.

“So we had to beat her and we knew. We would not beat her if you go in on the edge. … no square pen, round hole. “

In practice this week, Rice admitted that he first screamed at the senior striker Tyson Deghenhart in his career because he did not win 3.

Rice said: “I said: ‘No, this is Bull. Could just say that it is selfish if you don’t want to shoot them. I have confidence in you. Each of these players has confidence in them. If you don’t shoot them, come next to me. ” “

No matter that Degenhart was 0 out of 10 out of 10 against SDSU this season or that he missed his first two Thursday.

Degenhart finally made one late in the first half after the Aztecs drove up 33-22. The Point Guard Alvaro Cardenas made another one the next time it was owned and brought the half -time edge of five points.

Degenhart missed two more when the game rocked back and forth in the second half, one of them a ball that was not close.

49-49 bound with 5:42, he had fired another from almost the same place. Spray.

The Broncos are never again in the background.

“Our attitude was really when we have an open shot, we will do it every time,” said Cardenas, who shot 4 out of 13, all behind the arch. “Tyson, we believe in him to continue shooting the ball, and it shows its character because he radiates one and the game after reaching a 3.

“I’m not even trying to be funny, but that shows who he is. We are constantly talking about the answer. “

The other problem: The Aztecs, as they have endless routes all season, suddenly became cold on the offensive. They had no baskets in the last nine minutes – like zero. Even when they came to the line, they fought and went 3 out of 8 on the route.

Points in the second half: 19.

Boyd continued its hot shape and ended with 20 points with 20 points with 20 points. But no one else had more than seven and the other two starting guards, Miles Byrd and BJ Davis, combined 11 points with 3 out of 17 shootings. Miles Heide, who in his four previous starts instead of GWATH 17 and scored an average of 10.3 points, had no points and three rebounds in 32 ½ minutes.

Boise State had four players in two numbers, led with 16 points from Cardenas, the San Jose State Transfer, who defeated SDSU for the first time in nine career games.

“I thought it was just a perfect storm,” said Cardenas. “I had the full belief that we would beat her today. It is really very difficult to beat a team three times in a row. “

Remarkable

The state of Boise will play in the semi -finals on Friday evening. SDSU is now 9: 1 against the 5 seed in the Mountain West tournament and will not play eight seasons as head coach in the final in Dutchers for the first time.

• SDSU was projected by the predictive Kenpom metric as a 68-67 winner, which normally follows the sports books. However, Boise State installed Vegas Odddsmakes as a 1.5-point favorite, which was bet up to 2.5 points by Tipoff. An indication that most people are gentle on a Broncos victory.

• Boise State has switched on his starting line -up from the last meeting and inserted O’Mar Stanley and newcomer Pearson Carmichael for Emmanuel Ugbo And RJ Keene II.

• Jared Coleman-Jones Had nine points and seven rebounds for SDSU. Davis had five rebounds, but no one else had more than three.

• SDSU blocked three shots, Boise State blocked four.

• The Broncos had only two fewer sales than the Aztecs (10 to 12), but a edge of 19-8 edges for points from the sales.

• The officials: Verne HarrisPresent Kevin Brill And Tommy Nunez.

Originally published: March 13, 2025 at 16:51 PDT