Aztecs deal No. 14 Cal first loss of the season

There's always talk about a Pacific-12-Mountain West Basketball Challenge but it never gets to manifest itself.

So consider Thursday's late-night Thanksgiving soiree between California and San Diego State a litmus test for Larry Scott and Craig Thompson, the Pac-12 and MW commissioners, to cut a deal and have their schools square off against each other.

The 14th-ranked Golden Bears squandered a 15-point second-half lead and were handed their first loss of the season, 72-58, by the Aztecs in the semifinals of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational at Orleans Arena.

San Diego State (4-2) will face West Virginia at 7:30 p.m. Friday for the championship. Cal (4-1) meets Richmond in the consolation game at 5 p.m.

"This was a nice team victory," Aztecs coach Steve Fisher said of the win, a win that seemed improbable early in the second half. "You've got to have resolve. You have to believe. We just stuck tough together and we fought through it.

"We dove on the floor. We got hit in the face and we hit back. That's what it was going to take to come back against a quality team like Cal."

Down 15 points with just over 17 minutes to play and on the verge of getting run out of the Orleans, the Aztecs, who were 4 1/2-point underdogs, fought their way back, outscoring Cal 20-3 to take a 50-48 lead with 9:32 remaining.

Overall, San Diego State outscored Cal 42-13 over the final 17 minutes.

Fisher stuck with the same starters that got the Aztecs off to a fast start in Monday's 79-54 win over East Carolina. That meant Winston Shepard, Malik Pope and Skylar Spencer were once again coming off the bench.

The ploy worked as San Diego State got off to a good start. There was no deep hole to climb out of early as the Aztecs were up 9-5.

But when Fisher brought his regulars in, the Golden Bears responded by taking the lead and maintaining it for the remainder of the first half.

Part of the problem -- and the reason Fisher changed his starting five in the first place -- was his regular starters' inability to consistently score. The Aztecs hit just one of their final 18 shots from the floor in the first half and trailed 36-28 at intermission.

The second half didn't start much better for San Diego State. A missed shot, five quick Cal points as part of a 9-2 opening spurt and the Aztecs were down double digits, 45-30, and were in the deep hole Fisher had hoped his team would avoid.

But Shepard scored nine straight as part of the huge SDSU comeback on a mixed bag of perimeter jumpers, dunks and drives into the paint. The senior forward who starred locally at Findlay Prep had taken charge for his team. San Diego State had Cuonzo Martin's Cal squad backpedaling and confused while the Aztecs fans who had made the trip to Las Vegas were on their feet.

And just to make sure the Golden Bears didn't get their mojo back down the stretch, Shepard banked in a 19-foot jumper as the shot clock was expiring, giving SDSU a 62-53 lead with 2:43 to play. Shepard finished with 15 points, as did Spencer.

Ivan Rabb, Cal's talented freshman, finished with 18 points despite playing the second half with foul trouble.

With the win, San Diego State extended its remarkable winning streak when ahead with five minutes to play to 149 straight games.

"We're a positive team," Spencer said. "(Coach Fisher) told us to let the game come to us. And when we took the lead and we knew there was time left for them to come back, we knew we had to keep it going."

Stetson 83, Bethune-Cookman 70 — The Hatters improved to 2-3 despite committing 20 turnovers thanks to Derick Newton's double-double of 22 points and 11 rebounds. Brian Pegg added 17 points and 10 boards while Divine Myles had 14 points and 11 assists. Jordan Potts scored 23 points for Bethune Cookman (2-3).

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter:@stevecarprj