Aztecs lose after bye, which means they will say farewell to Mountain West regular-season title hopes

You recognize the drill, or by now you must.

Fall approach behind early on the highway. Combat again. Fail to make game-winning performs down the stretch. Can’t recover from the proverbial hump. Lose.

Once more.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat.

San Diego State misplaced its eighth sport of the season — and probably a No. 4 seed within the NCAA Match — the identical approach it has the opposite seven, this time 62-58 on Senior Evening at UNLV.

That drops the No. 21 Aztecs (22-8, 11-6) into fifth place within the Mountain West with one regular-season sport remaining, Friday at Viejas Enviornment towards 12-5 Boise State. Any hopes of repeating as common season champion are gone, they usually want a win or a New Mexico loss simply to remain within the prime 5 and keep away from the play-in sport within the convention match on this similar constructing subsequent Wednesday.

It additionally was simply the third loss towards the Rebels within the final 25 conferences and ended SDSU’s five-game win streak towards them on the Thomas & Mack Heart.

The Aztecs missed their first 13 photographs and 23 of their first 25, and the pure consequence was a 17-point gap halfway via the primary half. However they by some means tied it with 45 seconds left on Lamont Butler’s steal and fast-break layup.

UNLV referred to as timeout, drew a swap for freshman level guard Dedan Thomas Jr. on 6-foot-9 Jay Pal and obtained a step-back jumper from Thomas to make it 60-58 with 20 seconds left.

Timeout, Aztecs.

They ran a play to get a 3 on the left wing for Micah Parrish, who opened the sport 0 of 5 past the arc however was 3 of three since. He caught the move, appeared open and fired over the 6-9 Kalib Boone.

Not fast sufficient. Boone tipped his shot, the Rebels secured the rebound, Thomas made a pair of free throws, and the Aztecs dropped to 3-6 on the highway within the Mountain West.

Jaedon LeDee completed with a season-low 12 factors on 2 of 12 capturing in 35 minutes. Sophomore Elijah Saunders compensated with 14 factors after making 4 3s earlier than leaving within the last minute with what seemed to be a decrease leg cramp.

Parrish (11 factors) and Butler (10) additionally scored in double figures, however Jay Pal went scoreless and Reese Waters continued a protracted droop with three factors.

Essentially the most discouraging stat: 28.1 capturing total and simply 22.6 % contained in the arc.

The sport additionally featured a technical foul on Brian Dutcher within the second half whistled by official Mike Littlewood, a BYU alum and former BYU baseball coach who has now labored six SDSU video games this season — three of them losses.

Thomas led the Rebels (19-10, 12-5) with 19 factors. Keylan Boone added 16 factors, 4 assists and 4 blocks.

Perhaps subsequent season SDSU could make a particular request from the convention workplace:

No extra bye weeks, please.

Simply play straight via. Relaxation, sleep, off days, an opportunity to heal bumps and bruises, a chance to refresh the thoughts and soul – all overrated.

As a result of the Aztecs staff after bye weeks has not been the Aztecs staff that’s ranked No. 21 within the Related Press ballot and 19^th within the NCAA’s NET metric.

The primary convention bye got here in late January earlier than a sport at Colorado State. Their begin: down 17-4 en path to a 79-71 loss.

The second bye got here final weekend. Their begin: miss their first 13 photographs and path 12-2 and 27-10.

It was the ninth time within the final 10 video games that the Aztecs have trailed after 5 minutes. The lone exception was towards a Fresno State staff that mainly stopped working again on protection and trailed by 30 within the first half.

However regardless of being on tempo to do what the SDSU girls did at UNLV final week — dropping, gulp, 100-41 — the boys grabbed shovels and began digging out. Their first basket didn’t come till 12:05 left within the half, a 3 by Reese Waters, they usually missed 23 of their first 25 photographs, however as soon as the lid was off they managed a 10-0 that made it a sport once more.

Halftime rating: 33-28, Rebels.

Not dangerous, contemplating they shot 22.9 % and simply 17.2 % by the starters, together with 1 of seven by Parrish and a pair of of 9 by LeDee. And contemplating the Rebels obtained into the double bonus towards an Aztecs staff that dedicated solely six fouls in 40 minutes final week towards San Jose State.

Notable

Subsequent up: Friday vs. Boise State for Senior Evening (7 p.m., Fox Sports activities 1) … The officers: Mike Reed, Littlewood and Randy Richardson … It was Senior Evening at UNLV. Six gamers have been honored, together with starters Luis Rodriguez and brothers Keylan and Kalib Boone.