SDSU sends Cougars home from Vegas

The bad news is the Cougars are headed home from Las Vegas after San Diego State held on to make critical plays in crunch time in a 64-62 Aztec win.

The good news, if there is any, is they will get one more day of rest before going to the NCAA Tournament next week, possibly to Philadelphia, Portland, Kansas City or Greensboro.

Lee Cummard needs the rest. He’s gotta be a little worn down from the attention he’s been getting from defenses. By my calculation, he made just one field goal in the final 12 minutes after knocking down a 3-pointer at 12:01 in this loss. He opted to pass when he drew attention from the Aztec defense.

But that isn’t why the Cougars lost to the Aztecs Friday night in the semifinals of the Conoco MWC Championships. It was a list of little things, like giving up second shots to the Aztecs in the final 10 minutes, missing three throws and turning the ball over with some bad decisions.

Jimmer Fredette scored 17 points and Cummard had 11 for the Cougars. No other Cougar posted double-figures. Jonathan Tavernari went 2 for 8, 1 for 4 from the trey line. Every other statistic was about dead even. Both teams shot exactly 39.6 percent in what ended up being a defensive battle.

I thought SDSU did a good job working on BYU’s zone defense, the one that caught them off-guard in San Diego. But this game was lost by four more successful free throws by the Aztecs as senior Lorrenzo Wade went 11 for 11 from the line. Although Cummard, Fredette and Tavernari attacked the Aztecs inside the paint, they combined for just 9 free throw attempts.

The Cougars will gather in the Student Athlete Building football office auditorium Sunday to watch the NCAA Selection Committee decision on where they’ll go next week.