San Diego State and UNLV played their final regular-season game after 27 years together as founding members of Mountain West, but not their last.
They could meet again next week in the conference tournament in Las Vegas. And they’ve already scheduled a nonconference series beginning here next season.
Good idea, too, after the absolutely scintillating back-and-forth, forth-and-back spectacle Friday night at Viejas Arena.
The Aztecs won 89-86 before an electric home crowd on a night that had 12 ties and 11 lead changes and seemed like five against six sometimes with the way UNLV coach Josh Pastner was prancing around the floor in a suit and tie while the ball was in play.
It sends them to the Mountain West tournament in a better frame of mind than they started the day, following four losses in five games that senior Reese Dixon-Waters admitted had “definitely been rough.”
Now they become Lobos fans.
The victory means the Aztecs (20-10) are 14-6 in the Mountain West and can finish in a three-way tie for the regular-season title if New Mexico (13-6) wins at Utah State (14-5) on Saturday afternoon.
Or as one social media post put it: “This would be like stumbling around and falling face first into a cake.”
Here’s the weird part: If they finish tied for first, they’ll get the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament based on tiebreakers. If Utah State wins the title outright and pushes the Aztecs into a tie for second, they get the 2 seed.
Their quarterfinal opponent, quite possibly, could be UNLV again but this time in the Rebels’ home building.
Just for the sheer entertainment value, you almost hope it happens. The 175 combined points Friday were the most in regulation in the series in 40 years.
“I said at the beginning it was going to be a 12-round heavyweight boxing match,” Pastner said, “and it lived up to that.”
“A great college basketball game,” Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said.
SDSU guard BJ Davis had 30 points.
UNLV guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn had 32.
That kind of college basketball game.
It was tied inside four minutes to go when Davis hit a 3, and the Aztecs never trailed again – just almost did.
Davis had to make a pair of free throws with 27 seconds left for his 29th and 30th points of the game, then Dixon-Waters (19 points) made one of two with 12 seconds left for a three-point lead.
The Rebels got the ball to guard Gibbs-Lawhorn, the Illinois transfer who is the Mountain West’s leading scorer and leading candidate for player of the year. His defender: Davis. He tried one of his step-back 3s (he’d already made five), only for Davis to reach in and knock away the ball to seal the season’s 20th win – the 20th time in the last 21 seasons that’s happened at SDSU (and all nine years with Dutcher as head coach).
“I knew they needed 3,” Davis said, “and I knew nobody else was going to take a shot but him, and I saw him kind of expose the ball a little bit. It was instinctual to reach, and I got it. Luckily, there was no foul – you know how the refs be sometimes.
“Clean pluck, no foul and good play, I guess.”
The 32 from Gibbs-Lawhorn was expected. He’s been averaging close to that over the past month, including 42 last week against rival Nevada.
The 30 from Davis was less so. It was a career high by eight points from a triple-overtime win against Boise State on Jan. 3. He’s had five, five, eight, 11 and six points – 35 total – in his last five games.
“BJ was incredible,” Dutcher said. “He made big, important shots, he attacked the basket, he made important plays. He’s a player that when he plays like that, he makes us all look good. … He knew he was rolling. He wanted to shoot it every time he caught it, and I was fine with that.”
Added Davis: “Wasn’t really thinking too much, just letting it flow.”
Dutcher went with a starting lineup of seniors Sean Newman Jr., Dixon-Waters and Jeremiah Oden plus junior Miles Heide and fourth-year junior Miles Heide (who was honored before the game with other seniors). That was partly because it was Senior Night, and partly because freshman Elzie Harrington, a usual starter who only recently returned from a six-game absence, had his lower leg issue flare up and couldn’t go.
The problem in Tuesday’s 86-77 loss at Boise State was rebounding, but the Aztecs didn’t have a problem with that in the early going because, well, there weren’t many.
The Rebels opened the game making 6 of 9 shots – 5 of 6 behind the arc – and led 19-11. But instead of going down further, as they did at Boise State, the Aztecs did something about it. An 11-0 run gave them the lead, and it was back and forth from there for the remainder of the first half and nearly all of the second.
“It’s important for the West Coast that San Diego State and UNLV continue to play,” Pastner said. “Look, San Diego State has been the gold standard. We’re trying to build the program back.
“When I got the job, they told me it was gonna be a rebuild. It was a bigger rebuild than I thought when I first walked in. So we’ve got to build it back. And we’ve got to catch up to San Diego State.”
Notable
The Mountain West tournament begins Wednesday with four play-in games. The winners advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals … It was alumni night at Viejas Arena, and a couple dozen former players were introduced at halftime. They included Trimaine Davis, Matt Thomas, Brian Carlwell, Aqeel Quinn, Jeremy Hemsley and, greeted by an enormous roar, Lamont Butler … Also in attendance was Guy Fieri of “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” fame. He’s a UNLV alum but his son is a student manager for SDSU’s basketball team …
The officiating crew: Keith Kimble, Michael Reed and Randy Richardson. Kimble worked SDSU’s national championship game against UConn in 2023 and is currently No. 5 in the Kenpom ref rankings. Reed is No. 21, and Richardson is No. 29 … SDSU and UNLV were graced with a high-rated crew because of the rare game on Friday, when most college teams aren’t playing … SDSU finishes the Mountain West with a 288-158 overall record and 177-48 at Viejas Arena … The Aztecs are 19-2 in their last 21 Senior Night games.