San Diego State adds another win to its tally.
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Aztecs improve to 4-0 in league play.
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The Aztecs came out firing with 44 first half points against one of the more consistent defense in the conference. The offense was flowing, shots were falling and most important Matt Bradley made a couple shots early to get the confidence on the right track. SDSU finished off the win 74-65, much to the dismay of people who placed wagers on San Diego State -9.5 points.
Similar to the first half, San Diego State controlled the second half until garbage time when Nevada started throwing double teams at SDSU ball handlers, dropping the deficit from 21 points to eight points. A pair of powerful JaeDon LeDee dunks completely took the wind out of Nevada’s sails when Nevada was slowly hanging around below the 20-point deficit mark. That’s a good place to start when looking at San Diego State’s positives. Looking at more SDSU positives, let’s give some love to Nathan Mensah. The Aztecs defensive anchor often matched up with Nevada’s point guard Kenan Blackshear and limited the talented guard to 6-18 shooting with 12 points and four turnovers. How many bigs can just move over to the perimeter and defend guards with success? Not many. Mensah is the reason San Diego State is elite defensively.
Nevada got 17 points on 5-10 shooting and 6-6 from the foul line from sophomore forward Nick Davidson. The Santa Ana, CA native displayed a barrage of scoring moves, starting with pick & pops then simple catch and shoot threes, all overshadowed by a 10-foot one legged jumper which showed shades of Dirk Nowitzki was the shot of the night for the Wolf Pack. Nevada won’t win many games when Blackshear and Jarod Lucas combine for 23 points on 9-28 shooting and 1-10 from deep. Nevada needed 40 combined from its starting back court to win at San Diego State, but it didn’t come to fruition.
Nevada hopes to rebound on Friday evening when Utah State comes to Reno. A battle of the bubble in the Mountain West! San Diego State will take the eight days off before heading to the high-altitude of Colorado to face Colorado State and Air Force next week.
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