FRESNO, Calif. — They say the sign of a good team is that it wins even when it’s not good.
San Diego State wasn’t very good Wednesday night at Fresno State.
It won anyway.
The No. 21 Aztecs probably shouldn’t have, almost certainly shouldn’t have, after an absolutely dreadful first half and then making only one basket over the final eight minutes (and none over the final 3:40), but they’ll look less at the 45-43 final score at Save Mart Center than the Mountain West standings, where they’re still alone, somehow, in first place at 12-2.
In a word: ugly.
In two: really ugly.
In three: really, really ugly.
“It was a beautiful win,” coach Brian Dutcher said, trying to keep a straight face. “We’ve won in the 90s, we’ve won the in 80s, we’ve won in the 70s, we’ve won in the 60s. Now we’ve won in the 40s. We find a way to win. That’s it. End of story.”
This is the only regular-season meeting between the Aztecs and Bulldogs, since the game at Viejas Arena is the one they skip in the Mountain West’s unbalanced schedule. And that’s probably a good thing, because how many people want to see this matchup again?
“Every time we play Fresno State, it’s a gritty game,” senior Keshad Johnson said. “(Fresno State coach) Justin Hutson came from San Diego State and carries the same coaching philosophy that we carry. We knew what to expect. It was going to be tough versus tough. Whomever was going to be mentally and physically tough was going to come out with a win, and thank goodness we did that.”
It’s another way of saying, they won the rock fight.
The Aztecs (21-5) figured to have the advantage with 2:06 left, after Matt Bradley’s contested attempt at the shot-clock buzzer missed and Jaedon LeDee was fouled trying to tip it in. It was the fifth on Fresno State center Eduardo Andre (10 points, nine rebounds), who had been a handful on ball screens and the glass all night.
LeDee made one of two free throws to put them up 44-43. Then the Aztecs got a stop and a rebound.
Game over?
Uh, no. The Aztecs promptly turned it over, then had to defend once, twice, three times and (yes) four times clinging to a one-point lead.
The first three came on the same possession, with Fresno State twice grabbing offensive boards even without the 6-foot-11 Andre in the game. The Aztecs finally got a rebound, and Nathan Mensah was fouled.
Miss, miss.
So the Aztecs defended yet again with the game – shoot, maybe with their season – on the line. Mensah switched on Jemarl Baker on a ball screen and forced him to launch a perimeter jumper over his outstretched arms that was short. Mensah rebounded it, was fouled again and went back to the line.
Make, miss.
That left the Bulldogs with 3.3 seconds left to go the length of the floor for the win (with a 3) or to force overtime (with a 2). Isaiah Hill (16 points) got the ball near midcourt, took a couple dribbles against Lamont Butler and hoisted a leaning, off-balance runner from just beyond the arc.
No good.
Escape.
Fresno State had won 44 straight when holding opponents under 50 points, 11-0 with Hutson as coach. The last such loss was 49-48 at San Jose State … in 1987.
“Gutty, that’s all you can say,” Dutcher said. “I just feel like everybody has to win a game like this to have the kind of year you want to have. It wasn’t like we decided to play that way. Fresno State made us play that way. They were great on defense like we thought they would be. It’s not atypical to every time we play them. Both teams have a defensive culture and mindset.”
How bad was it?
Fresno State shot 30.9% overall and was 2 of 26 behind the 3-point arc (1 of 19 by leading scorers Baker and Hill) ... and lost by just two. The Aztecs shot 32.7% overall and were 8 of 16 from the line, including 3 of 8 in the closing minutes. The Bulldogs had advantages in points off turnovers, in the paint, second chance and fast breaks.
Another way to look at it: SDSU scored 43, 44 and 43 points in the first half of its previous three games, and managed only 45 over 40 minutes Wednesday.
Bradley led the Aztecs with, ahem, 10 points on 4 of 12 shooting. No one else was in double figures, although Johnson had 10 rebounds and Mensah had eight points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
On Saturday, the Aztecs had six dunks by halftime against UNLV and led by 20. Four days later and 330 miles north, they attempted three dunks in the first half and missed all three (and finished the game with none).
If there was a sequence that epitomized their struggles, it was this one:
Bradley got a midcourt steal and headed to the other end, drawing two defenders and flipping a perfectly weighted pass for the trailing Johnson to throw down. Johnson missed, the ball clanked off the back rim, Fresno State went the other way and Hill (16 points) drained a 3 — a five-point turnaround.
That was Fresno State’s first 3 of the game. The second didn’t come until Anthony Holland made one from the right corner with 6:47 left as part an of 8-0 run that gave them a 41-40 lead inside four minutes to go.
That did the absolute one thing the Aztecs didn’t want to against a seemingly overmatched opponent — letting it hang around deep into the game, letting it have hope, letting it dream of a season-saving upset. The Bulldogs (9-16, 5-9) already beat then-No. 21 New Mexico last month, ending a streak of 29 losses against teams ranked in the Associated Press poll that stretched back to 2002.
They didn’t knock off No. 21 again.
“Without our shots falling, we’re still able to win with our defense,” Johnson said, “and that’s where San Diego State is different.”
Notable
Next up: Colorado State at home on Tuesday (8 p.m., CBS Sports Network). … On the officiating crew was Larry Spaulding, who sustained what looked like a pulled hamstring during SDSU’s game against UC Irvine on Nov. 29 at Viejas Arena. The other two officials finished the game without him, and Spaulding didn’t work again until Jan. 7. This was his first Aztecs game since. … Darrion Trammell’s offensive woes continued, with four points. He has now scored 13 points in his last four games after averaging 18.7 in two seasons at Seattle. He did, however, have three steals and made SDSU’s last basket, a layup in traffic with 3:40 to go.
Former Aztecs guard Xavier Thames was in attendance, driving down from his home in Sacramento. Thames, whose college career ended in 2014, has taken online classes for the last few years to finish his undergraduate degree and completed it last semester. … Hotels were scarce in the Central Valley, with the three-day World Ag Expo in nearby Tulare. It bills itself, according to promotional literature, as “the largest agricultural show on earth, where more than 1,200 exhibitors unite to showcase cutting edge agricultural technology and provide a look into our rich agricultural history and economy.”
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