Bryce Miller: Wild, wacky Mountain West just got wilder after Aztecs’ improbable comeback over Colorado State

The Mountain West has become basketball-bonkers and hardwood lunacy. It’s like a stock market arrow swinging wildly from a chandelier at a bachelor party.

Big up. Cratering down. Rise. Fall. Intoxicating profit. Balance sheet-crushing loss.

The Aztecs were on the verge of suffering one of those knee-wobbling losses, the kind at this point in the season would drive a dagger into conference title hopes. Then they decided to pulverize Colorado State into dust Tuesday with a second half for the ages at Viejas Arena, a 20-minute bashing so dominant, so improbable that it was hard to process what eyes saw and ears soaked.

San Diego State went on a — wait for it — 41-11 run that shook common sense to its core in a 71-55 script-flipper that kept the Aztecs firmly in the Mountain West race.

“We have to have the mentality right, where we believe that if we put everything into it, we have enough time to come back and win the game,” Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said. “... Put everything that went wrong in the first half out of your mind.”

Aztecs bruiser Jaedon LeDee doubled up the Rams after halftime by himself, outscoring the shell-shocked visitors 22-11. Colorado State sprinted to a 14-point halftime lead before LeDee turned five points in the first 20 minutes into 27 when the haze cleared.

This has been the wildest of rides in the conference that stretches from sun-soaked sea level to the white-capped Rocky Mountains.

Right when it seems someone is poised to grab the steering wheel and bring this skidding, smoking white-knuckler back into its lane, the tires catch gravel and the dust kicks up again.

This one, though, constituted a full bunch of bananas.

One team had the game by the throat, but could not cut off the oxygen. The Aztecs kicked the Rams around the schoolyard and grabbed their lunch money, going on an 18-1 run to end it.

Colorado State, in one instant about to change the complexion of the conference stretch run, missed its last 10 shots and hit just one of its final 19.

“We could not meet the physicality of them,” Rams coach Nico Medved said. “... The story was the second-chance points and us not being able to finish.”

The momentum swings induced whiplash. From the 11:50 mark of the first half to the 5:02 mark, San Diego State rifled off 6-0 spurt ... followed by an 8-0 burst from Colorado State ... followed by an 8-0 answer from the home team ... followed by a 5-0 silencer from the plucky visitors.

Conference basketball on a Tuesday in February hardly tests the nerves and poise and resilience more.

Answers were followed by answers from the other side. Jaws were rattled time and again as the punches kept coming in a dizzying blur.

The Rams, on the rugged Mountain West road, showed for 20 minutes why they remain firmly in the mix among a log jam of seven teams that began the day sandwiched between 8-3 and 6-4.

This is a 40-minute league, though, especially at this time of the year.

“We knew they were going to punch back,” Rams guard Josiah Strong said. “They punched back pretty hard, and we didn’t respond.”

The Rams blitzed the Aztecs from the opening tip, hitting their first four attempts from 3-point range in the opening 4:22. They also missed just one of their first six shots, racing in front 14-2.

San Diego State, meanwhile, clanked and clunked its way out of the gate, making one of six shots.

Though the Aztecs mounted runs that brought Viejas to full throat, the Rams found ways to hit the mute button. Colorado State ended the first half on a 7-0 run, while San Diego State hit just one of its last eight shots and finished without a point in the final 3:11.

Then, LeDee happened. He piled up 14 points in the first 5:50 of the second half to send lightning bolts through the arena. He scored nine in 1:33 to trim the 14-point deficit to six.

Soon after, Darrion Trammell buried a rainbow 3 from the corner to make it 50-49 as the arena quaked. When Micah Parrish scored with 9:47 to play, the Aztecs never trailed again.

“It was a tale of two halves,” LeDee said.

The damage of what had shaped up as a loss early loss depended on your priorities. If a conference regular-season title sits atop your list, it would have been an agonizing gut punch that likely ended hopes of a repeat.

If you care about Quad 1 outcomes, NET rankings and the kind of things that pave your path in the NCAA Tournament, it would have amounted to a cringe-worthy blip.

A loss like that against a team like that hardly is penalized among the analytics crowd. In that universe, tumbles against Fresno State, San Jose State and UNLV in the coming month would sting most and mightily.

Every night in the Mountain West has been a home team’s treasure and road team’s taxing trauma. The Rams found a way to burst through. Until it unraveled like a decades-old sweater.

No one, regardless of what you covet, wants to see a team surrender home court, where holding serve has become the currency of the realm this season.

So, the Aztecs did. The car sputtered out of the gate, but hit Autobahn speeds by the end.

San Diego State, by turning this game on its head, moved to 19-6 and, at 8-4, leapfrogged Colorado State in the conference.

The Mountain West has been wild and wacky, without a doubt.

Somehow, some way, it just got wilder and wackier.