Final score: 67-66 Bronco victory
In football it’s well known that to win the MWC you are going to have to beat Boise State at some point along the way. In basketball the feeling is very similar with San Diego State. They are undoubtedly at the top of the Mountain West’s basketball program. Coming off an appearance in the National Championship game last year, it looks like this season is no different.
The Aztecs entered the game 15-3, with a veteran filled team that returned plenty from last year’s amazing NCAA tournament run. The Broncos were coming off a deflating loss that broke the nation’s longest home winning streak.
The game started out as expected, both teams trying to find their rhythm and identify potential advantages and disadvantages, like two boxers feeling each other out. With 14:14 left in the first half it was 10-10, Chibuzo Agbo and Max Rice both had 3-pointers. Roddie Anderson III was playing solid defense while also showing his newfound ability to score. Anderson’s improvement may end up being one of the major storylines of this season. He is quickly becoming one of the most productive point guards in the MWC, but I’ll save more commentary on that for another time.
Anderson missed a 3-pointer but after an offensive rebound was secured, he was given the opportunity for a wide open three. He set his feet, paused just a second and knocked down the shot. It felt like a big moment in the early career of a future star.
That run ended with the Broncos up 16-10 but as you should always expect, the Aztecs fought back hard.
Something new Coach Leon Rice has been trying is playing Roddie Anderson and backup point guard Jace Whiting at the same time. This felt like a head scratcher to me at first. Against the super athletic Aztec players, Whiting looked slow and I was grumbling. But that’s why Leon gets the big bucks and I’m sitting up in the nose bleeds. The pairing began to surprisingly work quite well.
Jace had a couple memorable moments in the game. He knocked down a big 3-pointer and made a heads-up fast break pass to find Andrew Meadow in the corner for another 3-pointer that about took the roof off the sold-out Extra Mile Arena.
Sometimes when teams match up you don’t get to see the two best players go head-to-head. That was not the case Saturday morning as Jaedon LeDee, likely the early favorite for MWC Player of the Year, and breakout star O'Mar Stanley were battling each other on almost every possession. And neither player disappointed. Both led their team in scoring going into the second half. O’Mar with 10 and LeDee with 8. Six of O’Mar’s points came from two huge 3-pointers. O’Mar has been hit or miss from 3 all season. Some nights he looks very tentative, others filled with confidence. Saturday he was shooting, and making, with the utmost certainty. O’Mar would tack on another 3-pointer in the 2nd half and end the night leading the team in scoring with 17.
To look at the final statistics without knowing the score, you might guess the Aztecs won this matchup. They shot better, out rebounded the Broncos, and had 14 more bench points than the Broncos. But you cannot count out the heart with which this Bronco squad plays. Tyson Degenhart ended the game with 11 points, a good, not great, night for the young man. But it was his presence and his leadership that might have made the difference. Whenever this team looked flustered, you would always see Tyson directing the huddle and speaking to the team. He seemed to provide the calm leadership needed on the floor.
Halftime: the Broncos led 34-31.
At times in the second half the Broncos looked a bit lost on offense. Twice they could have had shot clock violations and seemed unable to get much started. But when the big moments came, somebody always stepped up. Roddie Anderson was second on the team in scoring with 14 points. He made a couple nice shots; one mid-range got me particularly excited. If that is a shot he can make consistently it will expand his scoring ability to elite levels. He also had a couple nice plays in the paint and added 2 assists as well. It was nice to see Roddie match up against an elite defense and come away with well-earned points.
With 10:12 left in the game, the Aztecs took a one point lead. They had racked up a few silly fouls and I was beginning to wonder if they could just win the game from the foul line. But the Broncos yet again found a way to overcome adversity.
After several more lead changes these teams, and the fans, were probably wondering who would land the knockout blow.
With 5:42 left, O’Mar Stanley made a 3-pointer that put the Broncos up by 7. I was beginning to feel pretty good about the outcome of the game. My daughter even felt comfortable enough in the score to make her final food run of the night, because who doesn’t need a box of M&M’s after a hotdog, nachos and sour patch kids? Yuck.
And that lead would even grow a little, to 9 points. But with 18 seconds left the Aztecs were suddenly only down by 3. The Broncos continued the super fun trend of being unable to break the full court defense. A turnover allowed that lead to grow. The refs seemed to have swallowed their whistles, other than a phantom travel call on Roddie Anderson. Maybe they showed a better angle on TV, but it looked like a blatant miscall to those of us in the arena and the crowd reacted.
Now down to seven seconds and Max Rice is fouled. The Broncos lead 66-63 and it seemed almost assured this game would end 68-63 because Max is our best free throw shooter. Nope.
The first shot rims out and the groan from the crowd could probably be heard from midfield on the Blue across the parking lot. Luckily Max made the 2nd shot. Lucky because the Broncos allowed Aztec Lemont Butler to drive the length of the court as time expired and nail a 3-pointer. Three points, but we were up by four. Do the math. Whew! That was a close one.
The Broncos pulled out another huge victory at Extra Mile Arena and began what will hopefully become another long home winning streak.
There were a few chippy moments in the game, particularly when an SDSU player shoved Jace Whiting before an inbounds play. I just want to make sure Bronco Nation gets a little background before they start making assumptions that the Aztecs are a “dirty” team as I heard several fans saying as we left the arena.
I have the utmost respect for Head coach Brian Dutcher and his program. They play extremely hard night in and night out. Dutcher kind of has a grumpy old man look to him, but in reality, he’s a very respectful, easy to like coach. This is not a team that are regularly accused of playing dirty. In basketball, much more than football, fans have to cheer for conference mates. SDSU should be one of the easier ones to cheer for regularly. This is of course my opinion and others may not share these same feelings. Just don’t be too quick to judge an entire program on the actions of one player.
What’s Next: Tuesday January 23rd the Broncos travel to play Fresno State. Tipoff is at 8:30 p.m and can be viewed on Fox Sports Network.
