Jaedon LeDee tallied 31 points and 10 rebounds to lead No. 19 San Diego State to an 81-78 win against host San Jose State in a Mountain West Conference game on Tuesday night.
Lamont Butler scored 11 of his 16 points in the first half, Micah Parrish scored 13 points and Jay Pal contributed 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench for the Aztecs (14-2, 3-0 MWC), who won their seventh in a row.
Alvaro Cardenas scored 21 points, Myron Amey Jr. scored 20 and Tibet Gorener finished with 15 for San Jose State (7-9, 0-3), which lost its 31st straight game against a ranked opponent.
Pal blocked a layup attempt by Trey Anderson with two seconds left to preserve the two-point lead and Butler made a free throw on the other end to seal it for the Aztecs.
After leading by eight points in the first half, San Diego State took a one-point lead into the second half, where it remained close the entire way.
Cardenas hit a 3-pointer in transition for a 59-56 lead with 9:51 left, the biggest lead for the Spartans since the opening five minutes.
LeDee, who came in leading the conference at 21.4 points a game, scored inside to move the Aztecs ahead 70-65 with 5:38 remaining, but the Spartans didn’t relent, tying the score back up 72-72 on a 3-pointer by Amey with 4:11 to go.
Pal broke another tie with a 3-pointer from the corner with 2:42 remaining, giving the Aztecs a 77-74 lead.
LeDee made two free throws with 1:52 left for a five-point advantage and another with 1:16 remaining to make it 80-76. He drew 15 fouls in the game.
Cardenas made two free throws with 45 seconds left to make it 80-78 and set up the final possession after the Aztecs forced a shot to beat the shot clock on the other end.
Neither team led by more than three points until the Aztecs went on a 7-0 run to move ahead 23-16 with 9:29 left in the first half.
The Spartans quickly erased that margin with 3-pointers on three straight possessions by Amey, Cardenas and Gorener.
Butler made a layup with 35 seconds left in the half to move San Diego State back ahead 42-41 with the ninth lead change in the opening 20 minutes.
–Field Level Media