San Diego St. @ Nevada preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 9, 2019 ) San Diego St. 53, Nevada 81

Nevada has a chance to set a school single-season record for wins Friday night when it faces San Diego State in the semifinals of the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas. The top-seeded Wolf Pack survived a scare in the quarterfinals on Thursday rallying from a 15-point first-half deficit to defeat Boise State 77-69.

Nevada overcame a hot start by Boise State, which made its first four 3-pointers, but still trailed 34-29 at halftime to the eighth-seeded Broncos. "First of all, we stunk for the first 12 minutes," Wolf Pack coach Eric Musselman told reporters. "It was hard to watch. I would have rather gone to the dentist and gotten some teeth pulled than watch us on both sides of the ball." The Wolf Pack rebounded to outscore Boise State 48-35 after intermission, connecting on 5-of-11 from 3-point range while also outrebounding the Broncos 17-10 during than span. Fourth-seeded San Diego State, which defeated Nevada 90-73 in the semifinals en route to winning last season's Mountain West Tournament, also handed the Wolf Pack a 65-57 loss in San Diego on Feb. 20 and knocked off UNLV 63-55 in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

TV: 9 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network

ABOUT SAN DIEGO STATE (20-12): The Aztecs shot just 29.8 percent from the field (17-of-57) in the win over the Runnin' Rebels but won it at the free-throw line where they were 24-of-32 compared to just 11-of-16 for UNLV. Forward Jalen McDaniels, a 6-10 sophomore, showed why he's on the NBA radar by scoring a team-high 25 points while grabbing 14 rebounds and was the only Aztec to shoot better than 50 percent from the field, connecting on 8-of-14 shots - including 2-of-4 from 3-point range. Senior guard Devin Watson, who joined McDaniels on the coaches' All-Mountain West second team, added 19 points, including 11-of-14 free throws.

ABOUT NEVADA (29-3): Junior guard Jazz Johnson, a transfer from Portland, came off the bench to score a team-high 20 point - including 5-of-7 from 3-point range - while 6-7 forward Tre'Shawn Thurman, a senior transfer from Omaha, added 17 points and five rebounds to rally the Wolf Pack. "We don't even come close to winning today's game without Jazz and Tre'Shawn not playing good, but they played great," Musselman told reporters. "Today in the second half I thought we were phenomenal." Caleb Martin, the 2018 Mountain West Player of the Year, leads the team in scoring (19.6) and had 19 points in the win but was just 6-of-17 from the floor while twin brother Cody Martin, who averages 11.6 points, finished with 10 points, nine assists and five rebounds.

TIP-INS

1. The 15-point comeback tied for the largest comeback win of the season for Nevada, which also trailed then-No. 20 Arizona State by that margin before pulling out a 72-66 victory on Dec. 7.

2. Nevada tied it's school record for wins in a season that was also accomplished in the 2006-07 and 2017-18 seasons.

3. San Diego State has won a record five Mountain West tournament titles and is a conference best 31-14 all-time in the tourney.

PREDICTION: Nevada 75, San Diego State 67