ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Remember the San Diego State basketball team that couldn’t rebound?

It’s back.

The Aztecs struggled mightily in that department earlier this season despite a roster with six players at 6-foot-9 or taller, then seemed to solve the issue during the endless stream of practices over the semester break with an endless stream of rebounding drills. And then Saturday at The Pit happened.

New Mexico wasn’t shooting particularly well, but you don’t need to when you attempt 19 more shots than your opponent because you keep rebounding your misses. The result: a 62-48 New Mexico win on national TV that puts the Aztecs 2½ games behind the Lobos (14-3, 6-0) in the Mountain West race.

There’s still a long way to go, and the schedule softens considerably for the Aztecs over the next month. But they won’t compete for the conference title if they can’t play better a mile above sea level or rebound better (or shoot or take care of the ball) at any elevation.

“We had to beat them at their own game,” Lobos coach Richard Pitino said. “We knew we had to defend and rebound to win the game, because offense was going to be hard to come by. That’s what San Diego State has done for so long, and they’ve obviously won a lot of games.

“It wasn’t going to be a masterpiece, and that’s fine. To me, it was a beautiful win.”

And an equally ugly loss.

Last year’s Aztecs team struggled in the six games at 4,500 feet or above, losing five of them.

This edition didn’t look much better, quickly trailing by double digits coming off a pair of impressive wins at lower elevations – 76-68 at Boise State last Saturday and 67-38 at home against Air Force on Wednesday despite trailing by 12 early.

The “OR” (for offensive rebounds) column on the stat sheet told you all you needed to know: 18-3, Lobos.Second-chance points: 14-1, Lobos.

First-half points: 20, the fewest by the Aztecs in 93 games.

Or look at it this way: Both teams shot 35%, but New Mexico had 67 attempts to SDSU’s 48.

“It’s a recipe for a loss on the road,” coach Brian Dutcher said, “which it was.”

The Aztecs (10-4, 3-2) briefly pulled within five points in the opening moments of the second half, then surrendered two offensive boards on the next possession that the Lobos converted into a wide-open corner 3-pointer.

Soon, SDSU was down 20 and that was pretty much that.

As the final seconds ticked off, New Mexico students chanted, “Who’s your daddy?”

“The special thing about basketball is that basketball is just like life,” said Jared Coleman-Jones, who had 10 points and four rebounds. “Some days you don’t have the best day, and today we didn’t have the best day on the glass.

“We’ve got to take that as grown men and we have to get back in the lab. … That’s one thing we’re going to have to emphasize – a lot – for the whole season: the glass, offensively and defensively. Because that wins us games.”

Part of the issue was scheme. If you take one thing away on defense, you expose yourself in other areas and the question becomes whether your opponent can exploit them.

The Aztecs, as they often do, opted to switch all ball screens in an effort to prevent New Mexico point guard Donovan Dent – the front-runner for Mountain West player of the year averaging 19.3 points and 6.9 assists – from turning the corner and getting straight-line drives to the basket. That much worked, at least in the first half, holding Dent to four points.

But that meant an Aztecs guard was now switched onto a Lobos big. And to do that, the guard defends in front to deter the easy post entry and invite the far more difficult over-the-top pass.

The problem: The 6-10, 240-pound Nigerian center now has inside position under the basket for the rebound on a missed shot against your 6-3, 175-pound guard.

New Mexico’s Mustapha Amzil had 11 rebounds. Nelly Junior Joseph and Filip Boronvicanin had nine each. Guard Tru Washington had five. No SDSU player had more than four.

“For the most part, I thought we did a good job taking Dent out of the game in the halfcourt,” Dutcher said. “He’s a dynamic player. But you give and take with some of these defensive game plans. At the end of the day, it’s a team that’s averaging close to 85 points per game. We hold them to 62 in their building and they shoot 36%, but then they get 18 offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities.”

Second-chance scoring: 14-1, Lobos.

“We did talk about it,” said Pitino, whose team has won seven straight since a Dec. 7 overtime loss against New Mexico State. “They were switching. We felt like that would be an advantage, and our guys really took advantage of it.”

Of course, the Aztecs weren’t much better at the other end, either, in what was statistically their worst offensive performance of the season.

They didn’t make a perimeter shot until 3:43 left in the first half. They had nine first-half turnovers. They shot five air balls. They missed 13 layups. They were 9 of 17 at the line. Miles Byrd had 14 points but needed 13 shots. Fellow starting guards Nick Boyd and BJ Davis were a combined 2 of 14. And when they did miss, they couldn’t chase down the rebound.

“We’re going to miss shots, but we have to get second-chance opportunities,” said Dutcher, whose team had 15 and 24 offensive boards in the previous two games, both wins.

Of their three Saturday, two were “team rebounds” off a foul or out of bounds. They had only one player actually grab an offensive board, and that was by Byrd after Boyd missed a fast-break layup. And then he missed the follow.

The only difference from last year’s 88-70 spanking on national TV at The Pit was that they didn’t blow a 12-point lead.

They led 2-0 and 4-2 this year before the Lobos erupted for a 12-0 run and never really looked back.

It was always going to be big ask, though, taking such a young team (without injured senior guard Reese Waters) into The Pit and mile-high elevation for the first time. Seven members of the nine-man rotation had never experienced the crazed Lobos fans, and four had never played at altitude (and only two had ever played extended minutes above 4,500 feet).

They looked the part: sluggish, discombobulated, out of rhythm, out of sorts.

“You get that first wind, you get that second wind, it’s that third wind that you start feeling it,” said Coleman-Jones, whose previous stops were in the lowlands at Northwestern and Middle Tennessee. “You start feeling the air get a little thin in your lungs. When you try to sprint back, you’ve got a piano on your back.”

Notable

Next up: a pair of home games against Colorado State (Tuesday) and UNLV (Saturday) … The team flew commercial to Albuquerque and, for the first time this season, took a charter flight home given the quick turnaround before Colorado State … Byrd tweaked an ankle with 8:49 to go when he crashed into the courtside advertising boards. He returned but did not score again … Miles Heide played after sitting out Wednesday’s game with the flu but only for seven minutes. Demarshay Johnson Jr., also out Wednesday with the flu, was on the trip but did not suit up …

Dent had a more productive second half thanks to some fast-break baskets and free throws, finishing with 16 points and five assists. The Lobos, though, were only plus-seven points with him on the floor … New Mexico shot only 6 of 28 (21.4%) on 3s … The Lobos also had big advantages in fast-break scoring (13-2), points off turnovers (9-1) and points in the paint (32-20) … After last year’s highly criticized officiating performance from a crew with little or no experience at The Pit, a veteran crew was assigned Saturday: Kelly Pfeiffer, Larry Scirotto and Deldre Carr.

Originally Published: January 11, 2025 at 12:38 PM PST