Viejas Arena is hosting a concert with Duran Duran on Sunday night, and workers were scheduled to begin tear-down of the basketball court and set-up of the stage Saturday between 9:30 and 10 p.m.
They had to wait.
San Diego State and Boise State tipped off at 7 p.m. and were still playing well after 10 in what became maybe the craziest, wildest, wackiest, nuttiest game in the building’s 28-year history.
The Aztecs won 110-107 but not before … leading by 24 in the first half … blowing the entire thing … watching a Broncos shot roll around the rim and out at the regulation buzzer … getting a contested, tying 3 as time expired in first OT to complete a six-point comeback with 10 seconds to go … blowing a five-point lead in the second OT and going to a third … then watching a Broncos’ attempt at forcing a fourth OT bounce off the backboard and rim.
BJ Davis, who was the goat, then hero, then goat, then hero again, corralled the rebound and gleefully galloped to the other end as time mercifully expired.
There were 23 ties or lead changes, 51 fouls, 63 free throws, 73 rebounds and 151 shots (and probably about as many iffy officiating calls) in the 55-minute game.
Someone had to win.
The Aztecs (9-4, 3-0) did.
“Instant classic,” coach Brian Dutcher said of the first triple OT victory in school history.
“We snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, then we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “I mean, just crazy. You expect nothing less (in this series). It’s unreal.”
For 20 minutes Saturday, the Aztecs you’ve seen for the first two months of the season suddenly, inexplicably, almost magically became the Aztecs you thought you’d see, locking down on defense, free flowing on offense, overwhelming the opposition with their talent and athleticism and depth, then vanishing as quickly as they appeared.
They led 50-29 at halftime … and were tied with four minutes to go … and nearly lost in regulation.
Davis had a one-and-one free throw with 18 seconds left and the Aztecs up two. He missed, and the Broncos tied it. Davis’ attempt at a winner missed as well, sending Broncos guard Dylan Andrews on a furious race to the other end to beat the clock.
Andrews pulled up at the free throw line … and his jumper rolled around the rim and out as the buzzer sounded.
Boise State (9-5, 1-2) went ahead by six in OT as the SDSU offense, so fluid and efficient in the first half, sputtered and stalled. The Aztecs twice had chances to cut it to two, but Miles Byrd missed another front end of a one-and-one free throw and Miles Heide missed two.
They were still up six when Elzie Harrington made a 3 from the left side with 10 seconds left. The Broncos coughed up the inbounds pass into the backcourt against the press, and Davis calmly dribbled up and drained a contested 3 from deep at the buzzer.
Double OT.
“I missed a free throw that could have sealed the game,” said Davis, who had 22 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and four steals in 41 minutes. “I could have let that get me down, but I kept telling myself, ‘Next play, win the game with the next play.’ It’s tough, but if you want to win, it’s easy to shake off. Some people get bogged down by it, and some people move onto the next play.
“It’s, how much do you want to win? You show that by moving on from things.”
The script flipped in the second OT, the Aztecs leading by five before going scoreless for the final 2:40 and heading to another extra five-minute period when Davis dribbled into traffic and turned it over in the closing seconds.
The third OT was tied at 107 inside a minute to go before one free throw from Reese Dixon-Waters (16 points) and two from freshman Elzie Harrington (20 points) put them up three with 12 seconds left. The Broncos worked the ball to Andrew Meadow (25 points) for a 3 on the right side that missed.
Buzzer.
Roar.
Relief.
This was their second multiple overtime game of the season, and the second time they got a desperation, last-gasp, buzzer-beating 3 to improbably force bonus basketball. The other came on Nov. 18 against Troy and ended in a wrenching 108-107 loss that has haunted them ever since.
“An incredible game, a hard-fought game,” Dutcher said. “You have to get beyond how it looked all the time. You just have to look and see how gritty and tough it was. There was a certain level of toughness out there that, and unless you sat and witnessed it, no stats will show that.”
It did look nice for 20 minutes, though. Really nice.
There was little public indication the first half was coming, not after a four-loss nonconference schedule and a lethargic win at severely short-handed San Jose State four days earlier that was still a two-point game with five minutes to go. But behind closed doors, there were signs something might have clicked.
The team showed up for practice Thursday looking like a bunch of guys trying to fulfill New Year’s resolutions: be better teammates, buy into the coaching, pay closer attention to game plans, shed the bad body language from the frustrations of reduced minutes in an 11-man rotation, start playing like they can.
And they did, using a 19-1 run midway through the first half to build a 24-point lead against the team that was picked third in the Mountain West preseason poll and had top 100 Kenpom wins against Wichita State, Butler, St. Mary’s and New Mexico.
The defense was on point, holding the Broncos (9-5, 1-2) without a basket for 8½ minutes – they missed 12 straight shots – and 2 of their first 16 behind the 3-point arc. One of the nation’s best rebounding teams didn’t have a second-chance point in the opening 20 minutes, either.
The offense was pretty good, too, generating 50 points in the first half from nine different players on 65.5% shooting (5 of 9 on 3s) against a Broncos team ranked 20th nationally in defensive efficiency.
And they did it despite the potential distraction of Magoon Gwath not starting for disciplinary reasons.
“He’s got some responsibilities he’s got to live up to,” Dutcher said afterward without elaborating. “He’ll do it. I don’t have any doubt about it. But you have to do it every day in this program.”
Gwath made a pair of 3s and had nine points at halftime but played only six minutes and not at all in the three overtimes.
“He was beat up a little bit,” Dutcher said. “He was limping a lot. I don’t think he re-injured (the knee), … but I think he got sore and stiff, and we didn’t think it was in his best interest to put him back in.”
The offense also got sore and stiff, as Boise State kept chipping away at the lead – from 23 to 14 to nine to five to two to nothing. Dutcher twice called timeouts in an attempt to stem the tide, to no avail. The Broncos shot 56.3% in the second half and made eight 3s (on just 14 attempts), four of them coming from former NAIA player Javan Buchanan en route to 29 points.
“Our offense was really spread in the first half, and we moved so well that we attacked at the rim like crazy,” Dutcher said. “It was fun to watch. The second half, they tightened up defensively, we couldn’t get in the paint as easily and when they did, they were blocking shots and walling up. Everything got harder.
“Once you lose rhythm, it’s hard to get it back. I don’t know if we ever got it. We just gutted it out. I’ve got a gutty team and they showed it today. You don’t know until you’re in these moments. … We’ve got some fight about us. Now we just have to get better execution in certain parts of the game.”
Notable
Next up: Tuesday at Nevada (8 p.m., Fox Sports 1) in a battle of 3-0 teams in the Mountain West … The Aztecs entered the night 0-2 in triple overtime games. Both of the others came in 2000 … The 110 points ties for the 12th most in the school’s Division I history … SDSU outshot the visitors 53.4% to 42.3% and had a 50-32 edge in points in the paint, but the Broncos won the battle of the boards and were 27 of 31 from the line (compared to the Aztecs’ 21 of 32) … Rice got a technical foul in the first half for arguing with the officials … With 46, the Aztecs’ bench topped 40 points for the ninth time this season … Freshman forward Tae Simmons did not suit up with a leg injury that is not believed to be serious.