The state of San Diego, miraculously, still has all its members.
Aztecs should not. But they do it, once again by dragging an impuder opponent in the second half and once again somehow for a 63-61 victory against Wyoming on Saturday evening that they probably did not deserve on the basis of 33½ minutes and 11 seconds of the match.
Last month, it was a beating lay-up in air force. Last Tuesday, he came at 21 to survive San Jose State 71-68.
Magic knit of Saturday against an enemy Mountain West of Mountain West of the leading: down nine years and apparently comatose with 6½ minutes to go, only to surpass the cowboys 20-0 (yes, 20-0) with a heat goalkeeper From Miami unhappy Jimmy Butler in short and nearly two dozen former players present.
“I told them,” said coach Brian Dutcher about the alumni, “some of this gray hair is because of you, but most are because of this year’s team.”
And the last 11 seconds of Saturday.
The Aztecs (15-5, 8-3) were on the way not only to escape defeat, but escaping a major success in computer measures because they were favored to win by 16 and they were up 11 seconds at 11 seconds.
Here is what happened next, as incredible as it seems: Wyoming, after having made seven free throws all the game, did eight in 2.9 seconds.
Let’s say this again: Eight free throws in 2.9 seconds.
“We were too far ahead,” said Dutcher, “and like most young teams, we thought it was over.”
It started when the second year guard BJ Davis, who did it again and again all season, hung a shooter of 3 points and sent him to the line for three free throws while Dutcher cried: “Noooooooooooo », From the key.
Obi Agbim (12 points) did the first two, only so that Nick Boyd begins to yapping civil servants, obtains a technical fault and is ejecting. Agbim made the last free throw of Davis’s fault, then two others for T.
“They warned him, they warned him on our side,” said Dutcher. “They came to the bench. He had to say something else. I told him, he is not the first or the last player on arrival, but that cannot happen again. “”
The cowboys also kept possession and reinforced to Délieroise Allen (18 points), who pump the first year of Faked Taj Degourville in the air and – you guessed it – shot another fault on a 3 free throws from Allen reduced the advance to 61-58, and Degourville was quickly at fault.
He did the second of two, only so that Agbim drained his first 3 from the match, narrowing him at 62-61 with 1.4 seconds to play.
Brown Grad Transfer Kimo Ferrari was the victim of a fault with 0.8 seconds, made the first franc launch and finally someone did something intelligent. Ferrari pulled him on the rim, knowing as soon as the rebound was affected by a player, the clock begins and that they would not have enough time to pull – instead of giving the cowboys an inbound pass and a Chance to launch it the duration of the court.
Magoon Gwath was asked if Dutcher was happy that they won or steamed from the last seconds.
“A bit of both,” said Gwath. “He is happy to have won, making as many mistakes as us. But something like that cannot happen at the end of the game. ”
Gwath had his third big consecutive match, with 14 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks and six faults drawn. Boyd had 13 points before leaving. Miles Byrd finished 11 after another approximate first half (four points, three reversals). Miles Heide started for Jared Coleman-Jones, still sidelined with a shoulder injury, and collected nine points in 28 minutes in career, including some clutch baskets in the last minutes.
But the real Savior was the line of free throws, where the opponents had regularly surpassed the Aztecs all season. Thirteen SDSU points in the 20-0 race came to the line, and the Aztecs finished with six additional attempts than the cowboys and, more importantly, seven other brands (22-15).
“It’s a match of these margins,” said Wyoming coach Sundance Wicks. “You look at the box score and there are small margins here and there – the frank launch margin.”
Wicks had written “fearless and physical” on the whiteboard of the locker room before the match.
“The great thing tonight is that we were physical, but you have to be physical without a puck,” said Wicks. “I’m not sure, like there are ticket tacs here and there. … For me, we wanted this game, but you also sometimes have the whistle. Some games you get and certain games you don’t have.
The Wyoming (11-11, 4-7) entered the day 178th in the metric of Kenpom and 180th in the net of the NCAA, which makes it a quad 4 game. You can lose quadrums and 2s, and go GOOD. A loss of quad 3 is a bad but not a death of death. A loss of quad 4 is, well, more than a coffee stain on the curriculum vitae.
A two -point victory in a 4 quad match is not ideal, but it beat the beat – especially when you are down 50-41 in seven minutes to go.
“Byrd was able to wake everyone,” said Gwath. “He brought energy to the group and told everyone to wake up. We really woke up after that.
Degourville added: “We have a team full of winners. We all want to win, as ugly or kind. We will win a victory as we get it. “”
Dutcher’s perspective: “If patience is a virtue, I am the most virtuous man in the county. I had to be patient again today, while waiting for a 20-0 race. »»
Notable
The former players presented at half-time included the top scorer of all time Brandon Heath, Xavier Thames, Adam Seiko and Matt Bradley. They stayed on the field for the ceremony in honor of the radio commentator Ted Leitner, calling for the Aztec matches.
• Butler has a house in the county and, as it is not currently with the heat while waiting for a potential trade before the deadline of February 6 of the NBA, came to the match. He was wearing a San Diego wave hat.
• The Aztecs now have a Bye in the middle of the week before a road trip of two games in the state of Colorado and the state of San Jose.
• Dutcher joined Steve Fisher, Leon Rice de Boisse State and Steve Alford Du Nevada as the only coaches with 100 Mountain West career victories in conference matches. It is 100-35.
• Aztecs are more than 48 points in the last three games with Heide on the ground.
• SDSU pulled only 36.7%in total and 5 out of 22 (22.7%) out of 3. They were 22 out of 28 of the line (78.6%) after entering the game at 67.7 %
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