Nevada @ San Diego St. preview

Nevada at San Diego St.

Last Meeting ( Jan 9, 2021 ) Nevada 67, San Diego St. 69

San Diego State hopes not only to make this year's NCAA Tournament, but also to make a long run once it gets there.

If the 19th-ranked Aztecs had to survive some harrowing moments in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament on Thursday in order to make their dream happen, then so be it.

The top-seeded Aztecs (21-4) survived a scare from eighth-seeded Wyoming in a 69-66 quarterfinal win, and now must step up in class when they duel high-scoring Nevada (16-9) in the tournament semifinals on Friday night.

The fifth-seeded Wolf Pack won for the sixth time in their last eight games Thursday, eliminating fourth-seeded Boise State 89-82.

The win was Nevada's third of the year over Boise State. Next, the Wolf Pack will attempt to avoid a third straight loss to San Diego State, the Mountain West regular-season champ.

Nevada lost twice apiece to the Aztecs, Wyoming and Utah State during the regular season, but responded well to losing streaks all three times. They rebounded with two straight wins after the San Diego State sweep, four in a row after the double-dip at Wyoming, and now have back-to-back wins after the Utah State losses.

Wolf Pack coach Steve Alford believes an ability to respond to adversity has put his team two wins from a Mountain West championship.

"We haven't gone through a lot of long streaks of not playing well. That's a great credit to our players," he said. "Our players have stayed to the course of learning and growing and working, regardless of what happened to us."

Desmond Cambridge Jr. had 31 points and Grant Sherfield 26 in the win over Boise State. They combined for 38 points in a 65-60 loss at San Diego State in January, then 37 in an even closer defeat, 69-67, two nights later.

The Wolf Pack have averaged 87.0 points in their last two wins, but now they have to deal with the conference's top defense, one that limited Wyoming to 66 points one night after the Cowboys had set a conference-tournament record with 111 in a first-round win over San Jose State.

San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher found a positive in the tougher-than-expected quarterfinal win over Wyoming.

"I thought it was good for us ... obviously that we won it, first of all ... but that we had to play at a (slow) tempo like that where every possession is important," he observed minutes after the win. "We made important plays down the stretch."

The Aztecs might have swept the Wolf Pack earlier, but Dutcher doesn't expect anything less from Nevada than his guys got from an even bigger underdog, Wyoming.

"Every game is going to be hard," he declared. "Every game we play is going to be like (the Wyoming game)."

Making his San Diego State postseason debut, Terrell Gomez paced the Aztecs against the Cowboys with 20 points.

The graduate transfer from Cal State Northridge gave San Diego State the lead for good on two free throws with 1:30 remaining.

--Field Level Media