Utah St. @ San Diego St. preview
Thomas & Mack Center
Last Meeting ( Jan 16, 2021 ) San Diego St. 59, Utah St. 64
Mountain West Conference basketball fans have seen this before. Twice, in fact.
And they will see it for the third consecutive year Saturday afternoon when top-seeded San Diego State duels second-seeded Utah State in the conference tournament final at Las Vegas.
The 19th-ranked Aztecs (22-4) earned a shot at revenge when they held off fifth-seeded Nevada 77-70 in Friday's first semifinal.
San Diego State then watched as the Aggies (20-7) rode Neemias Queta's 18 points, 14 rebounds and nine blocked shots to a 62-50 triumph over third-seeded Colorado State in the nightcap.
So San Diego State will try to finally solve Utah State, which won the title 64-57 in 2019 and 59-56 last year.
The winner earns an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament, while the loser is left to hope for an at-large entry.
"It's two heavyweights going at it," Utah State coach Craig Smith said after running his personal record at the Mountain West tournament to 8-0. "What a great opportunity ahead of us."
After first-round byes, both teams will be playing for the third time in three days. San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher believes that schedule benefits his squad.
"We're 10 deep," he said. "Hopefully, that will pay dividends for us. When you have to play three games in three days, it's always tough. This will be the ultimate challenge."
The clubs also will be meeting for the third time this season, with those results mirroring what's happened in their recent conference-tournament head-to-heads. Utah State swept the two-game season series over a three-day stretch at home in January, winning 57-45 and 64-59.
San Diego State hasn't lost since and will take a 13-game winning streak into its 13th Mountain West championship game in the 22-year history of the event. The Aztecs have both the most titles (five) and most runner-up finishes (seven) in conference history.
Utah State has won six games in row as it seeks its third conference-tournament title in as many visits to the finals.
Both teams have relied on defense to get this far, and that's not surprising.
Utah State ranks No. 2 in the Mountain West in scoring defense in the regular season at 62 points per game and has been even stingier in its two tournament wins, holding tournament host Nevada-Las Vegas to 53 points and Colorado State to 50.
San Diego State owns the conference's No. 1 defense (60.7 points per game) and hasn't disappointed in the tournament, holding Wyoming to 66 points one night after it had scored 111, then limiting Nevada to 70 the day after the Wolf Pack put up 89.
The Aggies brought the better defense to the two earlier matchups with the Aztecs.
Mountain West Player of the Year Matt Mitchell was held to 10 points and San Diego State was limited to its season-low point total in the first meeting on Jan. 14.
Two nights later, Mitchell didn't play and Terrell Gomez picked up the slack to score 16 points, but the Aztecs could do no better than their second-lowest point total of the season.
San Diego State shot 31.5 percent and 41.1 percent from the floor in the two games, and made only 11 of its 40 3-point attempts.
Meanwhile, Queta logged 14 points and 16 rebound for Utah State in the initial win before Steven Ashworth had 17 points off the bench in the rematch.
--Field Level Media