SAN DIEGO — San Diego State on Saturday played its best 10 minutes of basketball in years, maybe decades, maybe ever, whipping the ball across the court, draining 3-pointers, contesting shots, swiping steals, grabbing rebounds, running the break, flowing, clicking, dominating, racing to a seemingly insurmountable lead against a respectable Colorado State team.
Except almost no one outside the players, coaches, referees, staff and a handful of media inside Viejas Arena saw it.
CBS didn't join the game — its first Aztecs telecast from Viejas in nearly a decade — until 10:18 left in the first half because LSU and Florida turned into a foul-fest that took for-ev-er to finish.
What the nation did see was a short-handed Aztecs team suffer an epic collapse in what became an unfathomable, improbable 70-67 defeat.
It's hard to know what was worse: Giving up a 19-0 run in the first half after leading by 26. Or being outscored 14-0 in the second half after leading by 15. Or allowing the last 11 points of the game after leading by eight with under two minutes left (and seven with just over a minute left).
SDSU sports teams have been on the short end of some disastrous results through the decades. This might top them all. No Mountain West basketball team had ever lost after leading by as many as 26 points.
"Anything that could go wrong down the stretch went wrong," coach Brian Dutcher said. "We had a seven-point lead with 1:05 to go. That should be enough to win the game."
These same teams meet in the same place Monday night on a different channel (6 p.m., Fox Sports 1). Who knows what's in store, given the first game's wild swings.
The Aztecs (6-2, 0-1) were without starting forward Aguek Arop, who was fine at practice Friday and fine at shootaround Saturday morning but was sent home before tip-off after experiencing stomach issues upon arriving at the arena. It was not believed to be COVID-19-related (Arop's test that morning came back negative), and Arop is expected to be available Monday night.
Also absent was freshman Keith Dinwiddie Jr., in street clothes with a hip injury. He typically is not part of the rotation. Then Keshad Johnson landed hard on his right arm trying to dunk in the first half and didn't play in the second, leaving the Aztecs with essentially a seven-man rotation.
Adam Seiko started in Arop's place and had nine points before being warned for flopping with 15:53 left, continuing to argue and drawing a technical foul. The two ensuing free throws cut what once was a 38-12 margin to five, and it was nervous time.
The Rams cut it to one when Adam Thistlewood got an easy basket inside on a blown defensive assignment, eliciting a timeout from coach Brian Dutcher.
But it wouldn't be until 12.3 seconds left that Colorado State (6-1, 3-0) took the lead. After the Aztecs led, 67-59, entering the final two minutes, the Rams continued to chip away.
Trailing 67-64, sophomore John Tonje launched a tying 3 from the left corner … as Aztecs senior Jordan Schakel fouled him trying to contest the shot. Tonje made the free throw to complete the four-point play and grab the lead.
"It never feels good to lose a game up seven," said Schakel, who fouled out on the play. "It never feels good to lose, ever. It doesn't feel good."
Matt Mitchell drove and hoisted a bank shot at the other end that bounced off the rim and out. The Rams grabbed the rebound and maybe the craziest win of the 2020-21 college basketball season.
Gomez continued where he left off in the 74-49 win against Saint Mary's 11 days earlier, finishing with a team-high 19 points in a season-high 30 minutes off the bench. Mitchell added 14 points and seven rebounds but his basket with 4:54 remaining was the Aztecs' last field goal. Seiko and Schakel had 12 points each.
Five Rams players scored in double figures, led by David Roddy and Thistlewood with 15 each. After getting crushed on the boards early, the Rams finished with a 39-31 rebounding margin. They also had a 24-12 advantage in points in the paint.
"Even though we played magnificent for stretches," Dutcher said, "we didn't play well enough for the whole game to deserve a win."
The day's only positive was that the Aztecs seemed to have solved their issues with slow starts at home, particularly in afternoon games that doesn't allow for their regular pregame routine. They had players arrive at the athletic department at 7:45 a.m. for testing, then held a spirited shootaround that went beyond the normal half-speed walk through.
And it worked. The Rams scored first, then were blitzed with a 14-0 run. They scored, then got hit with an 11-0 run.
Then Gomez got hot. The 5-foot-8 sixth man had 14 points by halftime after making four 3s and a long 2-pointer. A Gomez 3 made it 36-10. The teams traded baskets, and it was 38-12 after 13 minutes.
And … the Aztecs wouldn't make another basket for the remainder of the half. A 19-0 Rams run cut it to seven at intermission.
Said Mitchell: "We maybe lost focus."
