San Diego – Coming into the game San Diego State was 5-0 on the road while Nevada was 10-0 at home. Nevada hadn’t beaten SDSU since March 2019. Nevada was led by its big three of Will Baker with 19 points, Kenan Blackshear with 18 points, and Jarod Lucas with 26 points.

Both teams in the first half were great defensively in a very intense game. Tensions were high on both sides with there being an early technical foul on the Aztec’s Darrion Trammell. Nevada was riding Jarod Lucas’s hot hand early with 3 first-half three-pointers. In their first matchup of the season, the Aztecs were able to limit Lucas’s touches but Lamont Butler getting into early foul trouble allowed Lucas to dominate on the offensive end of the floor. 

The Aztecs were hurt by turnovers the whole game. In the first half, they had 6 turnovers while the last time the two teams faced off they had a record-low 3 turnovers for the whole game. On the defensive side of the ball, SDSU had a very hard time matching up with the 7’0 ft center Will Baker. He had a strong 19 points and 9 rebounds while going 7-7 from the free-throw line. When he left the game that is when the Aztecs went on a majority of their runs.

In the second half, the Aztecs leaned heavily on their bench play. The bench would have a total of 29 points on the game while Nevada only had 1 bench point for the entire game. Aguek Arop contributed some significant minutes to the Aztecs on both ends of the ball while Starting Center Nathan Mensah had foul trouble. He even went 5-6 from the free-throw line compared to him normally shooting 53% from that area.

Despite Matt Bradley, SDSU had a relatively rough shooting game lacking offensive production. Bradley and Trammell were the only two Aztec scorers to reach double-digit points.

Nevada had everything going for them late in the game including a season-high in attendance. Only four players for the Wolfpack even recorded a field goal. Despite that, they were able to close out a very tight game. Junior Tre Coleman had several clutch three-pointers that put to rest numerous Aztec runs. Down the stretch, SDSU failed to record stops which would lead to the loss. Nevada stayed hot for most of the second half getting the crowd loud making a very tough environment to play in. San Diego State had its chances throughout the game but failed to capitalize. 

San Diego State has arguably its biggest game of the season coming up Friday night vs Boise State at home. The two teams are tied for first place in the Mountain West at 8-2.