The halftime entertainment at Viejas Arena on Saturday night for San Diego State’s basketball game against UNLV was two roller skaters on a tiny octagonal platform that could barely fit them. They didn’t fall off, despite spinning and performing acrobatics at dizzying speeds. Metaphorically, the Aztecs did. Splat. The secret to their strong NCAA Tournament resumes in recent years has been a few high-profile victories and, equally important, zero “bad” losses. Now they have one, 76-68 at home against a UNLV team that had dropped its last two road games by 22 points each and didn’t crumble when the Aztecs mounted a desperate rally in the second half. “You have to play well to win, and we didn’t play well enough to win today,” said coach Brian Dutcher, who was honored with a bobblehead likeness distributed to fans. “That’s some on us, and a lot on UNLV.” The NCAA’s NET metric divides games into four quadrants based on their location and your opponent’s standing. Quad 1 and 2 wins are good, Quad 3 and 4 losses are bad. And this currently qualifies as Quad 3, snapping SDSU’s 67-game win streak in Quad 3 or below games. The last such loss? In 2020 at Viejas Arena … against UNLV. San Diego State guard Taj DeGourville, center, reacts during their game against UNLV at Viejas Arena on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune) That one stung because the Aztecs were the nation’s last remaining undefeated team at 26-0, but it didn’t damage their NCAA Tournament prospects (and the tournament ultimately was canceled because of the pandemic). This one likely doesn’t knock them out of tournament contention, but it does move them closer to the dreaded bubble and shrinks their margin of error over the final 13 regular-season games. The loss dumped the Aztecs (11-5, 4-3) to sixth in the Mountain West, with a pair of road games at altitude on the immediate horizon: Wednesday at Air Force and Saturday at Nevada. The furrowed brow stat: The Aztecs are 1-6 in their last seven games above 4,500 feet. They took the floor against the Rebels (11-7, 5-2) without their usual verve, dazed looks across their faces, lethargic body language, sluggish, flat, uncarbonated, uninspired. They trailed by eight at the half, then by 13, then forged a furious comeback that cut it to three and had Viejas Arena rocking, and had two possessions to tie it … and then the gas gauge hit E. “Just some mental lapses,” said sophomore Miles Byrd, who had all 21 of his points in the second half after shooting 0 of 7 in the first. “We’ve got to do a better job of bringing energy to start the game, whether than be the starting five or the first two or three guys off the bench. “That’s what is going to be what limits us this year, our ability to be mature and get the 50-50 balls and take care of the ball and shoot good shots. We older leaders need to do a better job stepping up. I know for a fact there were multiple times in the first half where I let my focus go out from the game, and I was either talking to refs or upset with myself.” San Diego State guard Miles Byrd rubs his head after being fouled against UNLV during their game at Viejas Arena on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune) It wasn’t the worst first half of the season only because of the 20-point debacle a week earlier against New Mexico at The Pit. The Aztecs managed three more points Saturday, but the numbers weren’t much prettier: 7 of 26 shooting overall (26.9%), 3 of 16 behind the arc, three assists, seven turnovers, minus-four on the boards. Four days earlier, in a 15-point win against Colorado State, 10 of SDSU’s first 11 baskets were in the paint. On Saturday, their first five shots were all 3s – all misses, one deeper than the next. Midway through the half, they were 1 of 1 inside the arc and 1 of 9 behind it. Their solution? Shoot even more 3s. They finally started falling in the second half – Byrd made four, Nick Boyd made two – and had Viejas Arena rocking as they made it a one-possession game. “There were a couple plays we could have made as a team that could have had us in position while they were on the ropes,” said Boyd, who had 14 of his 16 points after intermission. “They made those plays, and you see the outcome. “All our losses came from that same kind of situation, cutting the lead down and not really getting over that hump. It comes with experience. We have to keep fighting and fighting. We can’t have mental lapses when we get it to three and give them a chance to breathe. Just something we have to keep learning.” The Rebels, meanwhile, calmly worked the shot clock and found driving angles for easy baskets inside or kick-out 3s against SDSU’s vaunted defense that entered the day ranked seventh nationally. Starting with 3:30 to go, they scored on five straight possessions – the dagger being a turnaround, fall-away jumper by preseason all-conference point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. that made it 71-65 with 52 seconds left. “Luckily, we had built a little bit of a cushion because they went on that run that they always do in the second half,” UNLV coach Kevin Kruger said. “We were able to weather it. If you miss those, which a lot of teams do in here on a lot of nights, … it could have gone the other direction.” Added Byrd: “It’s locking in and being San Diego State. We went away from our identity today. We weren’t able to get those late stops after bringing the game to four, bringing the game to three, bringing the game to six. We weren’t able to get the stop on the other end like we normally do. That’s always super deflating.” Notable It was only the fourth UNLV win against SDSU in the last 27 meetings but the second in the last three. • BJ Davis had 10 points, Taj DeGourville had nine and Jared Coleman-Jones had eight to go with seven rebounds. Coleman-Jones (plus-1) and Wayne McKinney III (plus-2) were the only Aztecs with a positive plus/minus when they were on the floor. • San Diegan Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry started for UNLV and had eight points and three rebounds in 23 minutes, including a key lob dunk late in the game. • Senior guard Kimo Ferrari, who had been an energizing force off the bench in the last two home games, did not play until the final 16 seconds. • The Rebels had the edge in most statistical categories: points in the paint (32-30), fast-break points (11-1), bench scoring (25-11) and points off turnovers (17-11). They also outrebounded the Aztecs 37-32 and made 11 more free throws. Said Dutcher: “You don’t have to win all of them but you have to win at least one of them.”