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The 15 Best Games of the 2017-18 Mountain West Basketball Season

Nevada’s thrilling NCAA Tournament comeback wins crack the top five best Mountain West basketball games of the 2017-18 season

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Check out the best Mountain West basketball games of 2017-18

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What a thrilling year of hoops it was in the Mountain West.

Nevada repeated as regular season champs, was ranked for much of the year, and reached the Sweet 16. San Diego State surged at the end of the season to win the conference tournament over upstart New Mexico, which was picked to finish ninth in the MWC. Five-star freshman Brandon McCoy helped turn around UNLV, Boise State’s Chandler Hutchison enjoyed a tremendous senior season, and Hayden Dalton and Justin James formed one of the conference’s most exciting duos in years.

To help close the book on 2018, we’ve selected and ranked the 15 best games of the Mountain West season. We use the term ‘best’ loosely, as it could apply to great finishes, major comebacks, individual performances like game-winning shots, or just plain-old entertaining basketball. If you’re unhappy with our picks, well, WordPress has free website templates, so you can make your own and tell us why we’re wrong.

Anyways, here are the 15 best games of the 2017-18 Mountain West basketball season:

15) San Diego State 79, Nevada 73 (Mar. 3)

https://twitter.com/Aztec_MBB/status/970188517543309312

As mentioned earlier, San Diego State was awesome the final month of the season. SDSU dropped to two games under .500 in league play before returning Trey Kell from injury, and proceeded to mow down the rest of the conference. The Aztecs responded to a 83-58 beatdown by Nevada earlier in the season by holding off the 21st-ranked Wolf Pack to clinch the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament on Senior Night. Senior Trey Kell had a huge jumper in the final minute to help wrap up a memorable victory in Viejas.

14) Utah State 81, Fresno State 79 (Jan. 3)

https://twitter.com/USUBasketball/status/948809661309796353

People will forget about this game, but it was ridiculous. This was the peak of #ThatsSoMW. Fresno State held a comfortable 10-point advantage with under four minutes to go and a one-point lead with a couple ticks left on the game clock before Deshon Taylor fouled Koby McEwen with one second remaining. McEwen made the first and missed the second, forcing the game to overtime where Utah State picked up the thrilling win. The Aggies scored the final 10 points of regulation to keep their chances alive.

13) UNLV 86, Nevada 78 (Jan. 3)

https://twitter.com/TheRunninRebels/status/961485830442205184

Jovan Mooring silenced the city of Reno in a span of 40 minutes. The UNLV guard exploded for 31 points, including acrobatic three-pointers from well beyond the line, to stun the nationally-ranked Wolf Pack. After being throttled twice in 2017, UNLV’s road statement over its in-state rival was as sweet as wins come in this league.

12) Utah State 65, Fresno State 62 (Jan. 27)

https://twitter.com/USUBasketball/status/957433225189646336

I still don’t think Daron Henson’s game-winner over Fresno State received the publicity it deserved. The Aggie forward dropped 18 points on the Bulldogs, including a deep, fall-away three-pointer to sink the home crowd. Henson, who averaged 4.3 points per game this season, had a night to remember.