LOGAN, Utah — As San Diego State starting guard Darrion Trammell was ejected in the first half and ushered off the floor to the locker room, teammate Matt Bradley put a consoling arm around him.
“We got you,” he said in the din of Utah State’s Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
And they did.
The No. 25 Aztecs got what has to be this season’s signature win Wednesday night, building a 16-point halftime lead and hanging on for dear life to dispatch Utah State 63-61 at one of the most fearsome, formidable fortresses in college basketball.
The win keeps the Aztecs (19-5, 10-2) alone in first place as the cadre of contenders begins to dwindle. Boise State and Nevada still have three conference losses, but Utah State (19-6, 8-4) and New Mexico (19-5, 6-5) are quickly losing contact.
No game on the conference schedule loomed larger for the Aztecs, who had lost their last three at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum and were run off the floor by 18 here last year.
They did it without Trammell for the final 26 1/2 minutes and with Adam Seiko, the man who replaced him in the second-half starting lineup, in foul trouble. And another guard, Micah Parrish, fouled out. And Matt Bradley was so exhausted from the altitude and extended minutes that he leaned over, hands on his knees, during breaks. And coach Brian Dutcher having to play all kinds of crazy lineups to compensate.
The 16-point lead dwindled to five, then three, then to one when SDSU called timeout with 56.2 seconds left, having had five straight empty possessions.
Bradley got an angle on his defender, drove the lane, appeared to draw contact and hoisted a shot that rolled around the rim and off.
No whistle.
Jaedon LeDee grabbed the rebound, appeared to draw contact and hoisted a shot that missed as well.
No whistle.
Utah State called timeout with 10.2 seconds left and set up an isolation play for Max Shulga against Seiko. Short.
Keshad Johnson grabbed the rebound with 1.8 seconds left, was fouled and made the first but missed the second free throw.
The Aggies called timeout with 1.5 seconds left, needing to go the length of the floor. A full-court pass was tipped out of bounds by Johnson, giving the Aggies the ball under their own basket with .2 seconds left — enough for a tip. Lamont Butler deflected the inbound pass, and the Aztecs had escaped.
Bradley emerged from a mini-slump and led the Aztecs with 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting, many of them tough shots with defenders draped on him. LeDee had his best game since early in the season, with 14 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. Parrish had 12 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes abbreviated by foul trouble.
The Aztecs shot just 39.7%, usually not nearly enough to win, much less against a Utah State team ranked 12th nationally in offensive efficiency by the Kenpom metric. They also attempted nine fewer free throws.
But the Aggies were even worse, shooting 38.5% and going 5 of 19 behind the arc despite leading the country in 3-point accuracy at 41.8%.
The game was riddled with stoppages, first for a malfunctioning shot clock once, twice, three times, four times. And then for nearly 10 minutes after a brouhaha during a media timeout with 6:49 to go.
Play stopped near the SDSU bench and players began retreating for the timeout, when Trammell began jawing with Utah State’s Taylor Funk and Dan Akin. Soon, Utah State coach Ryan Odom sprinted from the opposite bench, across midcourt and began yelling at official John Higgins, who angrily shoved him away and shouted, “Get out of here.”
Then official Nate Harris T'd up Odom for continuing to argue.
The three-man crew went to the monitor and looked at it again and again and again. Finally, they ejected Trammell for leaving the bench even though the incident happened mere feet from where he was sitting. Asked how that was possible, Higgins told the Union-Tribune: “It doesn’t matter.”
Two Utah State bench-warmers and an assistant coach also were ejected. None of those ejections is punishable by technical foul free throws. SDSU shot two for the T on Odom, but it was unclear why he also wasn’t ejected for leaving the bench since he traveled the farthest.
The Aztecs led 27-17 at the time, and Bradley made one of two technical free throws to push it to 11. By intermission, the margin was 16 after maybe SDSU’s best offensive first half of the season.
Shooting 48.6% overall helped, but the main reason was another number in the box score: nine.
That’s how many offensive rebounds the Aztecs had in the opening 20 minutes … significant because they had exactly zero over 40 in their last trip here.
Another reason: 7-0 in fast-break points after being torched in transition here a year ago.
Another: 18-2 in bench scoring.
But the Aztecs have struggled in the second half for the entire conference season, averaging nearly eight points fewer while their opponents shoot nearly 50%. This was never over, not with a 16-point lead.
And it wasn’t. Leading by 13 with 12:13 to go, Seiko committed a rookie mistake, getting a technical foul for arguing after being whistled for a foul on Utah State’s Steven Ashworth (who appeared to travel first).
That was Seiko’s third and fourth personal fouls, sending him to the bench with the Aztecs already shorthanded in the backcourt because of Trammell’s ejection. Ashworth made the two free throws, and the Aggies got a lob dunk from 7-foot Trevin Dorius.
An SDSU timeout couldn’t stop the run, and soon the lead had dwindled to five.
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