Men's Basketball

Steve Fisher Era Top 10 - Game No. 1

Steve Fisher Era Top 10 - Game No. 1Steve Fisher Era Top 10 - Game No. 1

Nov. 7, 2008

SAN DIEGO -

Top 10 Games of the Fisher Era

Aztec fans cast an exhausting number of votes during the summer at GoAztecs.com to determine the top 10 games of Steve Fisher's past 10 years on Montezuma Mesa. Each week we have revealed a game from the fans' top 10 as we counted down to the beginning of the 08-09 season, which begins Saturday, Nov. 15 at 1 p.m vs. UCSD.

Check out the TOP 10 GAMES web page.

Top 10 Countdown


No. 10: 2/24/07 - SDSU 86, Brigham Young 74
No. 9: 1/28/06 - SDSU 78, Wyoming 77
No. 8: 3/8/02 - SDSU 70, Wyoming 69
No. 7: 12/8/01 - SDSU 93, Fresno State 78
No. 6: 3/1/06 - SDSU 91, Wyoming 72
No. 5: 3/14/07 - SDSU 74, Missouri State 70
No. 4: 2/25/06 - SDSU 73, New Mexico 66
No. 3: 3/19/03 - SDSU 67, UCSB 62
No. 2: 3/11/06 - SDSU 69, Wyoming 64
No. 1: 3/9/02 - SDSU 78, UNLV 75

2008-09 SDSU Men's Basketball


Aztec Men's Basketball Coverage
2008-09 Schedule | Print
News/Recent Releases
No. 1: San Diego State 78, UNLV 75

March 9, 2002 | Recap | Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

Watch Game No. 1 Video

San Diego State proved that anything can happen in the month of March in college basketball. As the fifth-seeded team in the 2002 Mountain West Conference Tournament, the Aztecs received a pair of free throws from Deandre Moore with 3.3 second remaining in the game and had four players score in double figures en route to their first MWC championship and their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1985 with a 78-75 victory over UNLV on the Rebels' home floor.

Why it was memorable: San Diego State went into Las Vegas for the conference tournament brimming with confidence and playing its best basketball of the season having won five of its previous six games. History was certainly against the Aztecs leaving Sin City with the MWC title considering no team seeded lower than No. 2 had won the conference tournament and SDSU had lost six in a row at the Thomas & Mack Center.

However, on March 9, 2002, history was rewritten. With just five minutes gone by, San Diego State scored 11 straight points to take command of the game, led by as many as 16 in the first half and went into the locker room at halftime ahead, 40-28.

The Aztecs withstood a mini UNLV run as the Runnin' Rebels cut the SDSU lead to six with 12:40 left in the contest, but the visitors answered with a 10-0 run thanks to six Randy Holcomb points to reestablish their lead at 16 with just over eight minutes to go.

Playing in front of a pro-UNLV crowd of over 14,000 fans, the Rebels mounted a fierce comeback in the late stages of the game behind Marcus Banks and Dalron Johnson, who combined to score 20 of UNLV's final 22 points.

After Al Faux made one of two free throws with 29 seconds left, Tony Bland missed the front end of a 1-and-1 situation and both teams turned the ball over, Banks was sent to the charity stripe with five seconds left and calmly made both to bring UNLV to within 76-75.

On the ensuing possession, Moore was fouled with 3.3 seconds left and he matched his counterpart by making both free throws to secure San Diego State's first MWC championship following a missed three-pointer by the Rebels' Lou Kelly as time expired.