LAS VEGAS — As the saying goes, the third time’s the charm.

San Diego State University had lost back-to-back Air Force Reserve Mountain West Men’s Basketball Championship finals to Utah State University, but history would not repeat itself this year. The third straight finals rematch between the two saw the Aztecs come out on top with a 68-57 win.

SDSU’s ticket is punched into the NCAA tournament. Now fellow Mountain West teams including Utah State, Colorado State and Boise State University will have to sweat out selection Sunday to see if they will join the Aztecs in Indiana.”

Everyone knew this game was going to be closely contested — it always is between these teams, and the first half demonstrated this. After 20 minutes of play, the Aztecs led 28-24. But like many games in this tournament, it took a second-half surge to finally put this game away. 

Both head coaches, Brian Dutcher and Craig Smith, push the importance of having a strong defensive identity as the backbone of your team. As Utah State became flustered and abandoned their defensive ethos, SDSU stayed true to their lockdown mentality and helped to provide the difference between the two teams as the clock ticked down. 

One of the biggest indicators on the stat sheet of SDSU’s stringent defense was the amount of turnovers Utah State committed. The Aztecs forced 16 turnovers while only committing nine themselves. The victory was solidified when Utah State’s Justin Bean turned the ball over with 2:41 left in the game. Trey Pulliam stripped Bean and the steal led to an open transition layup that put SDSU up eight. It was a crucial sequence, as the Aggies were desperate for a basket but instead gave SDSU perhaps their easiest two points of the night. 

Fatigue and exhaustion may have also played a significantly large factor the Aggies’ championship loss. Utah State played until 12:40 a.m. MST time last night. Their turnaround time to the championship game was less than 16 hours and the Aggies looked like their legs had seen enough.

After playing SDSU tight for 30 minutes, during the last quarter of the game, Utah State wasn’t able to crawl out of a 7-10 point deficit. The Aggies hung around for a while, but their inefficient shooting and turnover problems prevented a comeback. This is where the depth of this dangerous SDSU squad took over, and the Aztecs’ head coach knows how imperative that is to this team’s wins.

“That’s the beauty of this team, on any given night anyone can step up and that’s what helped us tonight,” Dutcher said in the post-game press conference.

The Aztecs’ bench scored 16 points compared to the Aggies’ eight, further providing evidence that SDSU has the deepest bench in the conference

SDSU was also able to limit the rebounding abilities of Neemias Queta. The center dominated CSU with 14 total rebounds, but he failed to have a similarly consistent inside presence against the Aztecs. That being said, Queta still proved to be an NBA-caliber talent tonight, putting up 18 points. 

The Aztecs were able to better contain Queta due to a solid inside presence of their own in the form of Nathan Mensah. The junior had a respectable 10 points and eight rebounds but he and Joshua Tomaic limited Queta to only six rebounds. Utah State maintained their streak of winning every rebounding battle this season, but SDSU’s bigs didn’t allow Utah State to be as dominant on the glass as they usually are.

The Mountain West Player of the Year and newly crowned tournament MVP Matt Mitchell dropped 14 points and four rebounds. Mitchell was very deserving of that award but the championship saw a team effort that included double-digit scoring from Mensah and Pulliam as well as nine-point outings from Jordan Schakel and Terrell Gomez. 

SDSU’s ticket is punched into the NCAA tournament. Now fellow Mountain West teams including Utah State, Colorado State and Boise State University will have to sweat out selection Sunday to see if they will join the Aztecs in Indiana.

Bailey Bassett can be reached at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @baileybassett_.