It seemed like a curious scheduling choice for San Diego State, playing a basketball game the Saturday afternoon after Thanksgiving, in San Juan Capistrano, in a 2,000-seat high school gym with plastic bleachers, against a team with a new coach picked to finish 11th in the Pac-12.
Weird things can happen in these types of situations.
And did.
The Aztecs blew a 12-point lead and went to overtime against a Pac-12 team for the second straight game … and won for a second straight game, 76-67 against Cal before a wildly partisan crowd jammed into the red bleachers and lining the upper concourse of JSerra High’s Pavilion.
That improved SDSU to 5-1, escaping a brutal six-game stretch to open the season with only one loss — in altitude in a place where they’re 4-31 all-time against a BYU team that is 6-0 and up to No. 10 in Kenpom. Their five wins include preseason No. 23 Saint Mary’s and two Pac-12 teams in OT.
“We were talking a week ago, if we could get out of this 3-3, it would be good,” Dutcher said after practice Friday. “Now we’re going to try to be greedy and try to go 5-1 in the first six.”
Greedy, and fortunate.
Just as they had before melting down against Washington six days earlier in Las Vegas, the Aztecs appeared in firm control of the neutral-court game against the 2-5 Bears — up 12 after a 3-pointer by Darrion Trammell and two free throws from a technical foul against Cal coach Mark Madsen with 9:24 left.
Trammell’s 3 came with 11:34 left.
That, incredibly, would be the Aztecs’ final basket of regulation, missing their final 16 field-goal attempts while their only points came on four free throws.
They missed their first attempt in overtime — 0 of 17 — before Jaedon LeDee made a jump hook in the lane that seemed to relax his teammates. The Aztecs went 7 of 8 from the line over the final two minutes to seal it.
LeDee finished with 19 points and seven rebounds, under his season averages, but USC transfer Reese Waters compensated with a career day: 24 points (6 of 11 shooting from the field, 10 of 10 from the line) and seven rebounds in 40 minutes.
Trammell had nine points in 31 minutes off the bench and played much of crunch time after a forgettable game by Lamont Butler, who had one point in 18 foul-plagued minutes. That point came on a free with eight seconds left in OT.
The Aztecs had seemed to solve their rebounding woes on the defensive glass that haunted them earlier in the season. Apparently not.
The Bears grabbed 11 offensive boards in the first half alone that kept them in the game when every other statistic indicated they shouldn’t be. The Bears shot only 33.3 percent in the half and attempted six fewer free throws, yet trailed only by five because they kept grabbing their misses that resulted in 10 more field-goal attempts.
A little halftime chat seemed to solve that, either through squiggles on the whiteboard or raised voices, and the Aztecs allowed only one offensive board through the opening eight minutes of the second half. It also helped that 6-foot-11 center Fardaws Aimaq (14 points, 18 rebounds) picked up his second and third fouls and went to the bench.
Not coincidentally, they built a 10-point lead for the first time and pushed it to 12 when Madsen boiled over and was assessed a technical foul for arguing a non-call with 9:24 left.
But that seemed to re-invigorate his team, and five minutes later the Bears had closed to four.
And then one on another corner 3.
And then tied it after Aimaq made one of two free throws with 1:42 left.
Neither team scored for the remainder of regulation, with the Aztecs having the last possession and opting to keep Butler — he of two dramatic buzzer-beaters last season — on the bench in favor of Trammell at point. The Aztecs called timeout and got the ball the LeDee, who drove baseline and lost the ball in a tangle of defenders.
Overtime.
Notable
Next up: home Monday against Division II Point Loma Nazarene
• The event was called the SoCal Showcase, not to be confused with the SoCal Challenge that was held here earlier in the week. The challenge was a tournament that also featured Cal, which lost to UTEP and Tulane.
• Demarshay Johnson Jr. has returned to practice after dislocating his shoulder in the season opener and he was listed as available for Saturday’s game, but he did not play.
• Cal forward Gus Larson picked up four fouls in four minutes in the first half.
• It’s been a rough week here at JSerra. The Bears went 0-3, with all three losses by one-possession games late in regulation.
