“Instant classic, Boise vs San Diego State, I’ve been through enough of them.” That’s how SDSU Head Coach Brian Dutcher described last night’s 110-107 3OT winner over Boise State Saturday night. Boy was he telling the truth.
The last opponent to beat the Aztecs in a conference tournament quarterfinals were these Boise State Broncos last season. For the opening half of this game it sure looked like SDSU kept that memory in their minds.
The Aztecs dominated the 1st half 50-29 behind exceptional teamwork on both ends of the court. The ball moved freely on offense and the team was getting it done in the interior with a 26-10 point lead in the paint.
But then the half came and totally switched up the rhythm. Boise State completely flipped the score behind Javan Buchanon’s 27 points on 10-13 shooting, including 4-6 from behind the arc. At times he was unguardable and the Broncos ended regulation headed to overtime.
“Once you lose rhythm it’s always hard to get back. I don’t know if we ever got it, we just gutted it out. I’ve got a gutty team and they showed that today. You don’t know until you’re in these moments.”
Dutcher has seen the fight from this team in an overtime loss to Troy in which they needed to come back. This time the guys sealed the deal to get the win and start the new year off on the right foot.
The right step to this dance was made when BJ Davis had one of the best two way plays ever seen in Viejas Arena. After failing to hit crucial free throws down the stretch in regulation, Davis had his chance to win the game slip away.
In overtime down six points with under 12 seconds to go, the arena crowd began to head for the exits. For the love of Montezuma Aztecs fans, you should know better than that.
That’s when the clutch of this team pierced through the darkness that filled the empty seats. Elzie Harrington knocked down a three pointer with 10.8 seconds remaining, prompting Broncos coach Leon Rice to stop requesting mop up duty on the court for once and call a timeout and draw up their inbounds strategy.
Curiously the Steve Fisher court saw record breaking amounts of precipitation last night and we’re not just talking potato tears. Thank goodness no one suffered injury or embarrassment like what we saw in 2014 from Boise State’s Derrick Marks. Kudos to Leon Rice for his gamesmanship of ensuring his team didn’t suffer in this ways again.
Coming Up Clutch
The Broncos according to Dutcher were in a similar situation vs New Mexico this season and had sent a guy long for a ‘football’ pass to get the ball away across the court and kill the clock. The Aztecs coaching staff was aware of this and put it in the team’s mind.
Trailing Andrew Meadow deep across the half-court Davis heroically raced to jump and intercept the pass. Racing down back down towards the Aztecs goal, he switched back & forth keeping Meadow at bay before he could foul.
Davis released the step back three pointer and it was nothing but net—but everything the Aztecs needed.
The Broncos would play tough to force a third overtime but it was too much Davis and too much Elzie Harrington. The freshman continued his confident play notching 20 points on 7-11 shooting 5-6 free throws. It was a much needed performance showing his blend of physicality and ball smarts rise above the opposition for great shot selection.
But the name of the game was BJ Davis. Get this stat line: 22 points, 3-6 three pointers, 7-9 free throws, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, and all playing 41 minutes off the bench. That my friends is hard work.
Momentum
“Hopefully this will build some momentum.” Dutcher knows what is coming. A mid week road test against Nevada Reno awaits the Aztecs and the grind of the Mountain West schedule won’t get any easier.
Often Dutcher & co. would have to play psychologist after a loss to get the team in the right mindset. Hammering the attitude of having an NBA mentality and turning the page after a loss is a tough road to take. With this big emotional win Saturday the goal is to keep the momentum headed upward in strong practice time—knowing this tough team has it in them to dominate.
If they can put a whole 40 minutes of game time together, these Aztecs can really do some damage on their way out of the Mountain West this final season.
But don’t count on the rest of the league to go down quietly.
Up next San Diego State travels to Reno on January 6th to face the Nevada Wolfpack for a Tuesday night game at 8pm PST. The game can be watched on FS1.
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