SAN DIEGO _ The bright side: Sergio Ibarra can shave now.
The athletic trainer for San Diego State's basketball team hasn't since the start of the season, got superstitious and let the beard grow as the Aztecs kept winning. It quickly passed Abraham Lincoln stage, moved into Fidel Castro territory and now has approached Mountain Man status.
No more. He'll no longer be unshaven because the Aztecs are no longer undefeated.
They lost, 66-63, on Saturday at Viejas Arena to maybe the least likely culprit, a UNLV team they'd defeated in 16 of their last 17 meetings.
But all the elements for an historic upset were present: A gutty Rebels team that lives and dies by the 3 and got hot in the first half; a whistle-happy officiating crew that according to one metric was among the weakest to work an SDSU game this season; and an Aztecs team that has been loose all year and probably was a tad too casual Saturday on a night when a conference championship banner for this season was unveiled shortly before tip-off.
That, and the simple mathematical principle of regressing to the mean.
When you're 26-0 and have been the only unbeaten team among the 353 in Division I since Jan. 15 in a year of unprecedented parity, the numbers are going to catch up eventually.
Despite falling behind by 12 at intermission and 14 midway through the second half, the Aztecs somehow got within one with 14.5 seconds left on a deep 3 by Malachi Flynn.
The Aztecs fouled Rebels guard Elijah Mitrou-Long with 11.5 seconds left, and he made both. Flynn tried to tie it with an even deeper 3, but it bounced off the rim and UNLV was awarded the ball with four seconds to go. Matt Mitchell stole a deep inbounds pass and hoisted a half-court shot at the buzzer to tie.
It clanked off the backboard.
But that's not what felled the lone remaining undefeated team in Div. I. The sins of the first 35 minutes did.
The Aztecs shot 38.9% overall and were 8 of 27 behind the arc. Only six players scored _ the starters and Aguek Arop with four points off the bench _ and they finished with more turnovers (12) than assists (nine). Flynn had 24 points, but Yanni Wetzell had just seven and was 1 of 6 at the line. KJ Feagin had five points and four turnovers.
UNLV (15-4, 10-6) got 19 points from Mitrou-Long. Amauri Hardy added 17 after being held to just two in the first meeting.
It was this kind of night: Hardy had an 18-footer bounce four times on the rim and go in. Flynn had a routine layup roll all the way around the rim and come out.
The big question now is how much this hurts the Aztecs (26-1, 15-1). Does it drop them off the No. 1 seed line for the NCAA Tournament? And if it doesn't, does it condemn them to being shipped to the East Regional in New York for the tournament's second weekend even if they win out?
And if they lose again, perhaps in the regular-season finale at Nevada or in the conference tournament, can they fall further than a 2 seed?
They entered the day No. 1 in NCAA's NET metric. What does a home loss to No. 121 do to you?
The answer? We're about to find out.
UNLV coach T.J. Otzelberger, after a four-game losing skid midway through the Mountain West season, decided to go small with four guards and Vitaliy Shibel, a 6-foot-9 Arizona State grad transfer with 3-point range. When he was hired, he promised a run-n-gun team that jacked up 3s, and after a plodding start to the season he figured, why not?
The 12-point halftime margin could be deciphered easily on the box score: The Rebels were 6 of 13 behind the arc, and the Aztecs were 2 of 12. Four extra 3-pointers equal 12 points.
But SDSU had deeper problems than icy shooting. Three times the Aztecs had live-ball steals that ignited fast breaks, and three times they failed to produce points. They turned it right back over twice, and Flynn missed a layup on the other.
The ball also got sticky on offense, and the team that usually moves it freely had two assists in the opening 20 minutes against six turnovers.
The Rebels had the ball to begin the second half and quickly found Bryce Hamilton for an uncontested layup, pushing the margin to 14. That was SDSU's largest deficit since trailing by 16 late in the first half against Iowa back on Nov. 29, a game the Aztecs would win by 10.
The killer play came with 11:42 left, when UNLV freshman Marvin Coleman scored and was fouled, missed the free throw, then muscled in the rebound for a 51-37 advantage. On the next possession, the Rebels missed a 3 but Cheikh Mbacke Diong followed it in.
Here's how bad it got: The Rebels went nearly eight minutes without a basket in the middle of the second half and ... SDSU could barely cut into their lead.
The Aztecs couldn't stop fouling, especially in the backcourt, and sending the Rebels to the line. And on the occasion that they missed, as Coleman did with 3:46 left, the Aztecs were whistled for a lane violation and he shot again.
