The 27 NBA scouts and three general managers in Viejas Arena on Wednesday night didn’t witness big games from any of the pro prospects they came to see.

What they did see, though, was the resuscitation, revival, even resurrection of a proud basketball program.

Twenty-six games into the season, San Diego State finally had the kind of performance and got the kind of marquee win representative of the lofty expectations surrounding a program that has reached the NCAA Tournament, college basketball’s Promised Land, seven times in the last nine seasons.

The Aztecs handed No. 6 Nevada just its second loss of the season, 65-57 before a roaring, raucous Viejas Arena crowd that included, for the first time in a long time, a full student section which chanted “O-ver-rated” at the Wolf Pack and stormed the court at the buzzer.


It is the highest ranked team the Aztecs have ever defeated.

You read that right. Three times, the Aztecs have knocked off No. 7s in the Associated Press poll, most recently BYU in 1988. The last top 10 win also came against Cougars, when they were No. 8 in the final of the 2011 Mountain West tournament. Gonzaga was No. 12 when it lost at Viejas Arena last season.

The most impressive part: The Aztecs did it with relative ease and aplomb, leading by nine at intermission and by 16 midway through the second half before Nevada closed to four in the final minute.

The momentary anxiety was erased by a floater in the lane by Jeremy Hemsley, followed by a Hemsley rebound of a Nevada miss, followed by two Hemsley free throws with 19.6 seconds left to seal it.


“That environment was incredible,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “Reminded me of a few years back. I think we treated the crowd to an old-fashioned Aztecs win: Defense and rebounding keyed it … We’re hard to beat in this building, and the crowd is a big part of that.”

Nevada coach Eric Musselman spent most of the first half railing at the officials, including one nose-to-nose confrontation with David Hall that resembled a manager-umpire dust-up in baseball except no one kicked any dirt.

By the second half, the fiery Musselman was standing with hands on hips, or with arms crossed. Or just sitting on the bench, helpless to stem the waves of emotion pulsing through the first sellout of the season at 12,414-seat Viejas Arena – or his team’s dismal 12-of-20 shooting from the free-throw line.

His Wolf Pack entered the night 24-1 overall and 11-1 in the Mountain West. The best start in the conference’s 20-year-history was 27-1 and 12-1, by SDSU in 2010-11.


The Aztecs (17-9, 9-4) made sure that won’t be broken, at least not this season.

It was Nevada’s third straight loss to the Aztecs in the last year, suddenly the only team it can’t beat, let alone get close to beating. The Wolf Pack were nationally ranked in all three. In the most recent meeting before Wednesday, the semifinals of the Mountain West tournament last season, the Aztecs led by 34 points and held Nevada to 25 in the first half.

Wednesday: Nevada managed just 21 points in the first half (and, incredibly only one basket from its starters).

The difference was that in the game last March, the Aztecs shot 61.3 percent in the half and led 55-25. This time, they shot 32.4 percent (only slightly better than Nevada’s 30.4 percent) and led by nine.


Still, it was a shock to the Wolf Pack’s system. Its first-half output over its previous six games: 42, 48, 41, 52, 51 and 36 points.

“Give San Diego State a ton of credit,” Musselman said. “I thought they played really hard. I thought they defended.”

The most amazing part: The two guys averaging close to a double-double were practically invisible. Jordan Caroline, the favorite for Mountain West player of the year, had zero points and one rebound in the half. Jalen McDaniels had zero points and two rebounds.

The other two attractions for scouts, Nevada twins Caleb and Cody Martin, weren’t much better. Midway through the second half, they were shooting a combined 2 of 11 and had four turnovers.


It was SDSU’s seventh win in their last eight, and the reversal of fortune has had similar characteristics: defense, rebounding and a game-altering, momentum-swinging, soul-crushing run.

This one came midway through the first half, a 15-3 spurt punctuated by five Nevada turnovers and 3-pointers from Hemsley, Matt Mitchell and Jordan Schakel (back after missing six of the last seven games with a sprained ankle). That put Viejas Arena into tilt mode and forced Musselman to do something he rarely has in a 24-1 season: call a timeout to break momentum.

He had to do it again in the second half after another 3 by Schakel put the Aztecs up 12 with 13:06 to go. The lead grew to 16 before the Wolf Pack, architects of a pair of epic runs in the NCAA Tournament last year, tried to pull off another.

Hemsley and Devin Watson led a balanced Aztecs attack with 15 points each. McDaniels, guarded by Cody Martin, had 10 points (on 4-of-15 shooting), six rebounds and three turnovers but played some of his best defense of the season. Mitchell had eight points and nine rebounds while shutting down Caroline (eight points on 3-of-12 shooting) on a night when rim-protector Nathan Mensah was limited to 10 minutes by foul trouble.


Nevada got 20 points from Caleb Martin, 17 coming in the second half. But no one else scored in double figures as the Wolf Pack shot 33.9 percent and was outrebounded 46-37.

Nevada’s only other loss came on Jan. 5 at New Mexico, when it melted down in front of a wild crowd at The Pit.

“We have to step up on a big stage and play,” said Musselman, who is now 2-6 against SDSU and 0-3 at Viejas Arena. “We’ve played in front of two really great crowds at New Mexico and here, and we didn’t play like we are capable of.”

They’ll get a chance to show SDSU what that looks like on March 9 at Reno’s Lawlor Events Center, the regular-season finale and Nevada’s Senior Night for a team with five senior starters.


They might play a third time, in the conference tournament the following week in Las Vegas.

“The kids were excited, obviously,” said Dutcher, whose team plays at UNLV on Saturday. “I said: ‘Stay humble. This is just one of, hopefully, three games against them this season.’”

Notable

Nevada entered the game at 11 in the NCAA’s new NET metric; SDSU was 141 … SDSU moved into sole possession of fourth place in the Mountain West at 9-4, a half-game behind 10-4 Fresno State (which lost against Air Force) and a half-game ahead of 9-5 UNLV … The win extended SDSU’s streak in conference home games to 13 … Nevada has scored 57 or fewer points six times in the Musselman; four have come against SDSU. The last time Nevada scored fewer points was 56 on Feb. 12, 2017, also against the Aztecs …

Dutcher is now 3-0 against top 25 teams at home – two wins against Nevada and one against Gonzaga … The Aztecs shot only 39.7 percent and were even worse than Nevada from the line (9 of 17), but they had the edge in points in the paint (32-24), on fast breaks (13-5), on offensive rebounds (13-8) and off turnovers (19-14) ... Mensah lost an opening tip for only the second time in the 12 games he’s started and jumped center … McDaniels was not made available to the media for a 17th straight game.


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mark.zeigler@sduniontribune.com