LOS ANGELES _ If you were caught in L.A. traffic Saturday afternoon heading to Staples Center, and there was a lot, and walked in late for San Diego State's game against Utah and glanced up at the scoreboard, you would have seen this:
Utes 15, Aztecs 2.
Either the Aztecs staged a comeback for the ages in an 80-52 victory, or the scoreboard was wrong.
It was the latter. (The team names were flipped on the video board.) This was a convincing statement from the opening tip, an old-fashioned trip behind the woodshed and the latest confirmation that SDSU's glistening metrics are warranted. Three days ago, this same Utah team beat No. 6 Kentucky after leading by 17.
Now they were down 30 against the 20th-ranked Aztecs.
The win keeps SDSU (12-0) as one of four remaining undefeated teams in Division I with one nonconference game left, Dec. 28 against 2-9 Cal Poly at Viejas Arena. Beat the Mustangs and 4-7 Fresno State on Jan. 1, also at home, and the Aztecs will be 14-0 headed to the Jan. 4 showdown at preseason Mountain West favorite Utah State.
"Undefeated, undefeated," the SDSU partisan fans echoed through Staples Center in the final minute.
Malachi Flynn led the Aztecs with 16 points to go with eight assists (and no turnovers), but the real damage came inside, where Yanni Wetzell and Nathan Mensah each had 14. Points in the paint: SDSU 42, Utes 10.
That, and suffocating defense.
Utah (9-3) got 21 points from Timmy Allen, eight from Both Gach and no more than five from anyone else. The Utes shot 31.3% after entering the day ranked 12th nationally in shooting accuracy at 50.2 percent.
If there was any concern that the Aztecs would be awed by the moment or the building, that was dispelled quickly. They jumped to leads of 7-0, 15-2 and 29-13.
They had been preparing for Utah all week, devoting two practice days to the Utes' schemes before their Wednesday game against San Diego Christian on Wednesday and two more days after it. They looked like it, too _ snuffing one offensive option after another.
Three times in the first half, the Utes shot desperation air balls at the shot-clock buzzer. Their first-half production: 19 points on 5-of-22 shooting.
The Utes couldn't score in the run of play, but they momentarily got back into it at the line. They shot nine free throws to SDSU's three in the first half despite the protestations of Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher, and the lead was down to 10 at the break.
Utah narrowed it to single digits early in the second half, only for Flynn to respond with a twisting and-one layup with his left hand in traffic to expand it to 11. The Utes never got any closer.
With 2:06 left, walk-on Caleb Giordano, who had never scored in a Div. I game before this week, was draining a 3 to push the margin to 25.
