Though San Diego State and Utah State both finished with six made 3-pointers apiece, the host Aggies made three of theirs in the final seven minutes of the top of conference showdown to send the Aztecs to a 71-66 loss on Saturday afternoon at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.Reese Dixon-Waters led all scorers with 19 points, his 11th consecutive game in double-figures, but was the only player for SDSU (15-6, 9-2 Mountain West) to do so as Tae Simmons scored 9 points and BJ Davis and Jeremiah Oden each sc
Though San Diego State and Utah State both finished with six made 3-pointers apiece, the host Aggies made three of theirs in the final seven minutes of the top of conference showdown to send the Aztecs to a 71-66 loss on Saturday afternoon at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
Reese Dixon-Waters led all scorers with 19 points, his 11th consecutive game in double-figures, but was the only player for SDSU (15-6, 9-2 Mountain West) to do so as Tae Simmons scored 9 points and BJ Davis and Jeremiah Oden each scored 8 points though Davis fouled out.
Despite leading for much of the game, the Aztecs couldn’t get a stop down the stretch as the Aggies (18-3, 9-2) made seven of their final nine shots from the field. USU’s season-scoring leader MJ Collins made a pair of clutch 3-pointers, part of him scoring 8 of his 12 points in the second half, while Karson Templin matched his career-high with 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
In each half the Aztecs were able to jump out to leads, building an 11-point margin with 3:38 to go in the first half and leading by 7 points at the midway mark of the second stanza, but each time Utah State was able to claw back.
Momentum changed to close out the opening 20 minutes when Taj DeGourville banked in a tough runner slashing the right side of the lane to extend the lead to 9 points with 2:04 remaining, but was called for a technical foul.
The Aggies converted the free throws and scored on the ensuing possession, then Adlan Elamin scored the final 5 points of the half (part of his 13 for the game) to level the score at the break 34-34.
After SDSU built their second half lead thanks to pushing it on the fast break, scoring 10 of their 15 points on the breakout for the game, Utah State responded with a 7-0 run to pull level at the seven minute mark. The Aztecs took two more leads on a pair of made free-throws by Miles Heide, then a Sean Newman Jr. layup, but triples by Elamin and Collins turned the game.
Davis picked up his fifth foul with 3:14 remaining on a loose ball after a missed 3-pointer by Templin when the baseline official whistled him as he appeared to avoid contact underneath Drake Allen battling for the rebound.
While the Scarlet and Black were able to largely take away Utah State’s transition game, the Aggies punished SDSU on the offensive glass, nabbing a 15-6 edge as part of an overall 46-31 margin on the boards. It turned into a 9-4 USU edge in second chance points.
The loss drops the Aztecs into a tie with Utah State for first place in the conference, while New Mexico has an opportunity to move into a three-way tie for first with a win at home against San José State on Saturday evening.
San Diego State returns to The Mesa to host the Wyoming Cowboys for an 8 p.m. tip off on Tuesday, February 3 at Viejas Arena. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network, with a local radio play-by-play broadcast on 760 AM.
Category: General Sports
