Aztecs Lose Heartbreaker At Boise State

It was tight, tense and ultimately a crushing last second loss for San Diego State basketball.

Boise State, the first place team in the Mountain West Conference, beat San Diego State 58-57 Tuesday night thanks to go-ahead free throws with 1.7 seconds remaining in the game.

With the win, the Broncos (22-4 overall, 13-2) remained in first place in the conference. The loss dropped the Aztecs record to 17-7 overall and 9-4 in the conference.

In the final 1:04 of the game, the lead changed hands 4 times.

Chad Baker-Mazara made a 3-pointer to give SDSU a 55-53 lead with just over a minute left.

With 35 seconds left, Emmanuel Akot answered with a 3 to regain the lead for Boise State.

After a San Diego State timeout, head coach Brian Dutcher drew up a perfect play. Using the teams leading scorer Matt Bradley to attract the defense, Bradley drew Boise's full attention coming around a screen, he then passed the ball up and over multiple Bronco defenders, before Aztec center Nathan Mensah grabbed the pass out of the air and threw down the alley-oop. I t was a great play design and execution, the basketball put SDSU ahead 57-56 with 24 to play.

An Aztecs defensive stop was followed by 2 missed free throws from Bradley, an 80% free throw shooter. That set the stage for Boise to push the ball off the missed free throws, resulting in a foul call on Mensah as he slide to contain dribble penetration near the key.

Abu Kigab went to the line with 1.7 seconds remaining and drilled the tying and go-ahead free throws.

A final half-court heave by Bradley failed to get close, resulting in a 58-57 loss at Boise.

Next up for San Diego State is a Friday home game at Viejas Arena against San Jose State.