The San Diego State coaches just stood there.
And exhaled.
The great escape.
Down 14 points inside seven minutes to go and on the verge of statistically one of the worst losses in program history, the Aztecs roared back and won 63-62 at UCSD on Jaedon LeDee’s buzzer-beating follow on a missed 3 by Lamont Butler.
The officials went to the monitor and checked the clock. The ball left LeDee’s hand with about a half-second left, hit the backboard and nestled into the net as the buzzer sounded.
Good.
The Aztecs (7-1) used a desperation 13-0 run cut it to one. After the teams traded 3s, UCSD leading scorer Bryce Pope hit a turnaround jumper with 55 seconds to make it 62-59. LeDee followed that with a basket inside, and it was a one-point game again.
UCSD called timeout with 27.2 seconds left in the game and 18 on the shot clock. LeDee rebounded a missed Pope 3 and gave the ball to Butler in a similar position to last year’s Final Four finish against Florida Atlantic — down one, inside 10 seconds to go.
But before he could go anywhere, UCSD — which had four fouls to give before the bonus — fouled him.
The Aztecs inbounded to midcourt and called timeout with seven seconds left. Darrion Trammell passed up a half-open look for Butler. The Tritons opted against fouling again and went to a zone, and Butler let fly a 3 that hit the rim. LeDee soared above a tangle of bodies for the rebound and the heroics.
LeDee had his quietest game of the season, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds. But Micah Parrish had a double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds), Elijah Saunders had 13 points and Butler had 10.
San Diego State guard Miles Byrd (21) and forward Elijah Saunders (25) celebrate the Aztecs’ win.
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Tritons had three players with 15 points: Pope, Francis Nwaokorie and Hayden Gray. They made 10 3s and did everything right except on the boards, where SDSU had a 43-28 edge (14-5 on the offensive glass).
Had SDSU not converted, Friday would have been the biggest victory in UCSD program history and arguably the biggest in UCSD sports history.
And one of the worst-ever losses by the Aztecs, erasing all the work down in a 6-1 start and a big enough stain on its resume to potentially cost it an at-large spot in the NCAA Tournament next March. The Aztecs entered the night at No. 19 in the Kenpom metric, 228 spots above the Tritons.
Some people within SDSU’s program have warned for years that a program of its stature should not play games in crosstown gyms because a) it doesn’t have to and b) the cost-benefit analysis doesn’t compute.
The problem is that the crosstown little brother ranked 246th in Kenpom doesn’t play like it in its home gym before 2,000 raging students instead of 20. And the Tritons, as expected, looked nothing like the team that three nights earlier trailed by 30 in an ugly loss at Washington, a team SDSU beat.
Compounding the situation: Three of SDSU’s top eight players didn’t practice all week.
Miles Byrd (hip) didn’t suit up. Reese Waters and Jay Pal, both suffering from the flu and in need of pre-game intravenous fluids, did, but Waters didn’t start and was used sparingly. When Waters played, he clearly was not the same player who was averaging 16.4 points and was six days removed from a career-high 24 against Cal.
“They were on the road (for a week) and played three straight basically road games and stayed in the same hotel,” Dutcher said. “I know what that’s like. We went to Vegas for three or four days, and I was exhausted. I can’t even imagine what (a week) on the road must be like. So they’ll get back, they’ll get rejuventated and they’ll come into an atmosphere that everybody wants to play in.”
San Diego State guard Darrion Trammell (12) attempts a 3-pointer against UC San Diego.
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The ideal scenario for the Aztecs would have been a fast start that took the stuffing out of the 2,000 students sitting behind the north basket and filling both corners.
So much for that.
UCSD’s Gray had a shot inside goal-tended, and the Tritons led 2-0. And led the rest of the half.
A team that ranked 300th in Division I in 3-point accuracy opened 3 of 3 behind the arc and quickly led 13-7. Gray, a 6-foot-4 junior guard from Santa Fe Christian High, entered the night 2 of 12 on 3s this season, and by halftime he already had made two and had 10 points.
The Aztecs were shooting 38.2 percent at intermission (2 of 10 on 3s), got to the line only three times despite drawing five fouls in the opening three minutes and were serenaded with “Over-rated, over-rated” by the UCSD students as they left the court. The score was 31-30, Tritons, and the only reason the Aztecs were that close was because of their work on the boards.
San Diego State forward Jaedon LeDee (13) goes up for a shot against UC San Diego forward Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones (12).
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Tritons rank among the nation’s worst in defensive rebounding, and that stat held true. The Aztecs missed 21 shots in the first half and got back 10 of them that they converted into nine points.
It was SDSU’s best offense: jack up a perimeter jumper, miss … and grab the rebound that much closer to the basket. Their best defense: let the Tritons keep jacking up 3s … and hope for a regression to the mean.
SDSU finally took its first lead on an Elijah Saunders 3 on its first possession of the second half. But that was short-lived after a rare six-point play: a deep 3 by Bryce Pope and a flagrant foul by Micah Parrish blocking out for the rebound. That gave the Tritons two free throws (they made one) plus the ball (and Pope scored inside).
And that was before the 5½-minute scoring drought that pushed the margin to 14 inside seven minutes to go.
Notable
Next up: at Grand Canyon on Tuesday (6 p.m. PST, ESPNU) … The officiating crew was Randy McCall, Mike Reed and Mike Kashirsky. McCall was just at LionTree Arena, working the Rady Children’s Invitational tournament here over Thanksgiving. Reed controversially ejected Darrion Trammell at Utah State last season. And Kashirsky is the batting practice pitcher for the Chicago White Sox during the college basketball offseason … UCSD’s mascot, King Triton, rappelled into the arena floor from the ceiling before tip-off.
