San Diego State shocks New Mexico

Dairese Gary drove the length of the floor, but missed a contested layup with less than a second remaining to give fourth-seeded San Diego State a 72-69 victory over top-seeded New Mexico in a semifinal game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Friday night.
“I knew we only had seven seconds, so it was get the ball and just go,“ Gary said. “The ball got loose and I didn’t know how much time there was left, so I just grabbed it and tried to put it in.”
Kawhi Leonard secured the rebound and made a pair of free throws for the Aztecs.
D.J. Gay, who had seven assists and no turnovers, hit just his second field goal of the game with 1:00 to play to give San Diego State a 4-point lead.
The 3-pointer came late in the shot clock and was one of 10 the usually-poor shooting Aztecs made in the game.
Gary answered with a 3-pointer of his own, but after a defensive stop, New Mexico could not score.
The Lobos, ranked No. 8 in the nation, trailed for much of the game, but used a 9-0 run to take a 64-62 lead with 2:28 to play.
Billy White ended the run with a jumper in the lane, followed by a breakaway 3-point play to put the Aztecs back out front.
He finished with 28 points, but no rebounds or assists.
“Just to come home and relax and be in my own back yard,“ he said of feeling comfortable in this tournament. “I felt great.”
San Diego State coach Steve Fisher was pleased with White’s performance.
“When I grabbed him before the game, I told him, ‘Make your mom proud,’” Fisher said. “After the game, I told him, ‘You made everyone proud.’”
San Diego State went 10-for-16 from 3-point range in the upset.
MWC player of the year Darington Hobson had 15 points and seven assists for the Lobos. Gary finished with 17 points and A.J. Hardeman added 12 points and nine rebounds in the loss.
Leonard had 15 points and 12 rebounds for the Aztecs, who made 8 of 9 free-throw attempts.
The loss ended a 15-game winning streak for New Mexico.
“We haven’t had this feeling in two months. We’ve been on a great run and these guys have been warriors through that run and they were warriors tonight,” Lobos coach Steve Alford said. “San Diego State played a great game and I thought we played a great game. We just ran out of time at the end.”

Fourth bid?

San Diego State may very well have clinched an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament with the victory.
It would likely be the fourth bid for the league.
White said he would rather get the automatic berth that would come with a win tomorrow.
“We’re not worried about (an at-large berth) right now,” he said. “We’re just worried about winning the Mountain West tournament.”
For what it’s worth, ESPN’s Andy Katz tweeted immediately after the game that San Diego State had wrapped up a berth.

Pit West

New Mexico has more fans here than any other team in the tournament, including UNLV.
The Lobo fans always travel in large numbers and that is especially true when they have a top-10 team to root for in a better climate than Albuquerque.
This week has been ridiculous in terms of the number of New Mexico fans at the Thomas & Mack.
The problem comes now that they have been eliminated.
Those fans have all the tickets, so fans of UNLV or BYU will have to try to snatch up those seats unless a bunch of people from San Diego plan on driving up for the day tomorrow.
If none of that happens, there could be a much smaller crowd than expected tomorrow afternoon.

Hot shooting spurs run

San Diego State used an 10-0 run midway through the second half to take a 62-55 advantage with 7:45 remaining.
Kawhi Leonard hit a jumper and a 3-pointer, while Chase Tapley knocked down a 3-pointer  and Billy White threw down a thunderous dunk.
The Aztecs had made 9 of 13 from beyond the arc at the time.
San Diego State shoots just 31 percent on the season. The stats of Leonard were even more out of whack from his season stats.
He made 3 of 4 from 3-point range, but shot just 18 percent during the season.

Premature celebration

New Mexico got into a bit of a rhythm early in the second half and had a chance to create a little bit of a margin.
The Lobos led by three and Darington Hobson drove to the basket and drew a foul.
The league player of the year had a chance to make a pair of free throws to put New Mexico up by five.
Hobosn went a bit overboard with the celebration, doing a little dance and pulling his teammates over to join the celebration.
He just forgot the part where he goes and makes the free throws.
Hobson missed both and Chase Tapley responded with a 3-pointer to tie the game for the Aztecs.

Up next

UNLV and BYU will meet once again in the final game of the day with a berth to the championship game on the line.
It is quickly becoming one of the best basketball rivalries in the west, though home teams have dominated the series.
Jonathan Tavernari will be playing UNLV for the seventh time at the Thomas & Mack Center in the city he attended his senior year of high school.
He has lost all six previous meetings.
BYU starting guard Tyler Haws will not play tonight. He suffered an eye injury in last night’s victory over TCU.
Haws is in a BYU warm-up suit with his eye badly swollen.
The freshman averages 11.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.