LARAMIE, Wyo. – Laradise was actually Laradise. The sun was out, the wind was not whipping across the prairie, temperatures were pushing (yes) 60 degrees in the dead of winter.
It wasn’t so nice inside Wyoming’s Arena-Auditorium for San Diego State’s basketball team.
The Aztecs played their typical game at 7,220 feet in front of a smattering of fans and an ocean of empty yellow and brown seats, which is to say plodding, ponderous, lethargic, anxious, nervy … and close.
They don’t always win these rock fights, but they did this time, 72-69 on Saturday night to clinch a first-round bye in the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas and move ever closer to assuring themselves an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament no matter what happens in Sin City.
“I’ve been coming here 25 years,” coach Brian Dutcher said of a unique place where no one on his roster had played. “It looked like a Wyoming game. Unless you’ve come here and sat through these games, you don’t understand.
“Were we perfect for 40 minutes? No, not even close. But we got another road win and we avoided what people would say was a bad metric loss. Whether people say we didn’t win by enough, I don’t really care. It’s a hard place to play. People who have never been here can say what they want, but if they haven’t been here, they have no idea what it is here.”
Losing to the Cowboys, 186th in Kenpom and 191st in the NET metric, would have been a second Quad 3 loss on their resume and likely dumped them from definitely in to back on the dreaded bubble. Now a split of their final two regular-season games – at UNLV on Tuesday, home against Nevada next Saturday – should be enough to assure a relaxed Selection Sunday.
The mixture of euphoria and sheer relief quickly dissipated into the evening air when the Aztecs learned their charter plane home had a mechanical issue that would take several hours to repair. Without a guaranteed departure time Saturday, they checked back into their Laramie hotel and spent the night, hoping for better news on the aviation front in the morning with another road game looming Tuesday.
“Not what you want to hear,” Dutcher said.
The only worse thing would have been if they had lost a game that had 14 lead changes and eight ties – and nearly a ninth.
The Aztecs (20-7, 13-5) didn’t trail by 18 points, as they did in the first meeting Feb. 1 at Viejas Arena. But they still struggled to pull away from the Cowboys (12-18, 5-14), whose only win over the previous eight games was against last-place Air Force.
Even a 10-point lead with 2½ minutes left wasn’t safe, as the Aztecs started clanking free throws and the Cowboys inched perilously closer, within eight, then six, then five, then four, then three.
It came down to this:
Jared Coleman-Jones had a pair of free throws with 6.6 seconds left and the Aztecs up three.
Missed the first.
Missed the second.
The Cowboys raced down the court and tried to launch a 3, only for the two Aztecs to converge and coax a to a teammate inside the arc, leaving too little time to attempt another shot outside it.
Buzzer.
Inhale (from the thin air).
Exhale (from the clooooose call).
“It kind of feels like you’ve got a cloud over your head energetically,” BJ Davis said, “so you’ve really got to be tough mentally to push through that and make plays. You feel crazy, you feel fatigued, your body doesn’t want to give that extra effort, but you’ve got to be mentally strong and give it.
“Things went wrong. A lot of things went wrong in this game, and we just didn’t quit. We got some technicals called on us, but we stayed resilient.”
Ah, the technicals.
Wyoming’s Obi Abgim, the object of a barb that led to Nick Boyd’s ejection in the first game, got a T for woofing early in the second half. Thirty-one seconds later, Davis got one. Seven seconds after that, Miles Byrd did as well.
After Davis’ T, Dutcher charged onto the floor to accost the officials and was more visibly irate tham he has, perhaps, in his eight years at head coach.
Dutcher “I told the officials: ‘Let’s let the players decide this. Let’s not get involved at the level where you’re deciding the outcome of this game with technical fouls and other stuff.’ I don’t think he said anything directed at the other team.”
Davis: “I have no clue, to be honest. I made the 3 and looked at my bench to turn my guys up, like, let’s go guys, let’s do it. And technical. It caught me off guard. It caught me by surprise. It’s one of those things that’s just testing you, to see if you are who you say you are and be able to do your thing no matter what.”
Davis and Byrd settled down, a momentary detour to otherwise superb performances, each finished with 18 points on a combined 12 of 22 shooting. The Aztecs shot 50% (24 of 48) and committed only seven turnovers. But they were 17 of 30 (56.7%) at the line and crushed on the boards 39-23, although most of that disparity came in the first half.
Agbim, who entered the night third in the Mountain West in scoring at 17.7 points, led the Cowboys with 21 points. Dontaie Allen added 16.
Magoon Gwath accompanied the team on the trip to Laramie but didn’t suit up for the second straight game after hyperextending his right knee a week ago, instead parked on the bench in a black sweat suit and a brace. Miles Heide (seven points, four rebounds) started in his place again.
It remains uncertain when he might return, but that date appears to be nearing.
“He was doing rehab (during morning shootaround),” Dutcher said, “and he was on the exercise bike behind me. I said: ‘If you were riding in the Tour de , you’d be in the race tomorrow.’ That’s how hard he was riding the exercycle. But unfortunately, we’re not in bike racing now.
“I think he’s feeling better. I think it’s good to see that kind of mobility in his knee. We’ll get back and see where he’s at. I hope he’ll be back. I don’t know if it will be Tuesday or Senior Night, maybe the conference tournament, maybe the NCAA Tournament. But I believe in my heart he will be back and help us win games this year.”
Notable
The officiating crew: Michael Irving (who was responsible for iffy block call on Byrd late in the home loss against Utah State), Juan Corral and Chad Barlow.
• The halftime entertainment was a speed painter splashing colors on a giant canvas at midcourt, then flipping it upside down to reveal an image of former Wyoming (and current Buffalo Bills) quarterback Josh Allen.
• The Cowboys honored seven players and two student managers in a pre-game Senior Night ceremony.
