Jaedon LeDee had 22 points and eight rebounds and fifth-seeded San Diego State returned to the Mountain West Conference tournament championship game for the seventh straight season with an 86-70 win against top-seeded Utah State on Friday night in Las Vegas.
Lamont Butler scored 16 points, Micah Parrish had 15 points, Reese Waters scored 11 off the bench and Darrion Trammell added 10 points for San Diego State (24-9), which will play the winner of seventh-seeded Colorado State and sixth-seeded New Mexico in the championship game on Saturday evening.
Great Osobor scored 19 points, Ian Martinez had 16 points and Isaac Johnson finished with 11 points for No. 18 Utah State (27-6), which had won six in a row.
The Aztecs took the lead for good 54-51 on a 3-pointer by Butler with 14:49 left in the game.
Trammell was fouled on a 3-pointer and made three straight free throws to give San Diego State a double-digit lead at 63-53 with 11:28 left.
The Aggies got as close as seven with 3:13 left.
The Aggies used a 7-0 run to take an early 10-5 lead and another 7-0 burst made it 21-15 with 11:24 remaining in the half.
Parrish hit a jumper with 13:06 left in the half to give San Diego State a 15-12 lead, but the Aztecs didn’t make another field goal until Parrish sank another jumper with 6:52 left to cut the deficit to 34-19.
That sparked a 15-2 run that pulled Aztecs within 36-32 with 3:22 remaining in the half and Utah State eventually took a 39-36 lead into the break.
Parrish made a 3 to tie it at 41-all with 18:19 left in the game.
LeDee hit a trey to move the Aztecs back in front 48-45, but it didn’t last long as Martinez hit a 3-pointer 21 seconds later to tie it again.
San Diego State scored on its third straight possession with Butler sinking a 3 for 51-48 advantage with 15:37 left.
–Field Level Media