SAN DIEGO - John Tonje scored 11 points, and his four-point play with 12.3 seconds left helped carry Colorado State to a 70-67 win over San Diego State on Saturday.
"Well, it was a tale of two halves obviously," Aztec coach Brian Duther said. "We got off to a fantastic star and had great momentum. We made enough mistakes at the end of the first half to let them back in the game. That is college basketball. There are always games like this with great swings of momentum. In the second half, we got off to another good start. It was back and forth. We built a seven-point lead with about a minute-and-ten (seconds) to go and (from there) credit to Colorado State. They made the plays (that) we did not down the stretch. They deserved it. We did not make enough plays to win the game. Although we played magnificent in stretches, we did not play well enough for an entire game to deserve the win. So now the task at hand is put it behind us as quickly as we can, not let one loss cause two losses and be ready to move on and play it again in two days."
Tonje buried the three and drew a foul on Jordan Schakel to give the Rams a 68-67 lead. Matt Mitchell missed a jumper for SDSU with three seconds remaining and Kendle Moore made two free throws to finish it ,as CSU scored the last 11 points of the game.
The Rams had a 14-0 run earlier in the second half and a 19-0 run in the first half.
The Aztecs led 36-10 led when Terrell Gomez made a three-pointer with 8:15 left before halftime. The Rams (6-1, 3-0 Mountain West) proceeded to outscore San Diego State 23-4 to narrow their deficit to 40-33 at halftime.
The comeback is the largest in school and conference history. The Aztecs on 14-of-30 free throws.
David Roddy recorded his third consecutive double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds for CSU.
Gomez had 19 points for the Aztecs (6-2, 0-1).
With the loss, San Diego State had its 35-game winning streak snapped when leading with five minutes remaining in the game, and dropped to 113-7 the last 120 times they have enjoyed a halftime advantage at home.
The two teams will battle each other once again on Monday, Jan. 4, starting at 6 p.m. PT inside Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena.
Aztecs Edged By Colorado State, 70-67
