History repeats as No. 19 San Diego State falls on the road

The silver lining in the cloudy skies hugged the mountains in the Cache Valley on Tuesday, just as clouds are suddenly enveloping San Diego State’s chances of repeating as Mountain West champions:

There are no true road games in hostile, sold-out arenas in the NCAA Tournament.

By now, you know the script: Get ranked, go into a ravenous building on the road in altitude, play well in spurts, get close deep into the second half, fall apart, lose.

The opponent this time was Utah State, the venue was the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum with its 4,000-strong student section, and the score was 68-63.

It could mean, for the fifth time this season, a one-week stay in the Associated Press rankings for the Aztecs (20-7, 9-5) before unceremoniously being dumped. But the bigger stakes are in the Mountain West race, handing the Aggies (22-5, 10-4) the inside track to a most improbable regular-season title after being picked ninth in the preseason media poll.

It was a bitter pill, and one the Aztecs keep swallowing.

They are now 1-5 above 4,000 feet this season, the lone win coming at last-place Air Force.

They are 0-5 in the Mountain West in sold-out road games, 2-7 over the entire season (and that includes a buzzer-beating win at UC San Diego).

They came close again on Tuesday, fighting back from 10 down in the second half to close within a point and force a Utah State timeout with 4:37 left. But they didn’t make another basket until Miles Byrd sunk an inconsequential 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left.

Their next four possessions after trailing 59-58: missed 3, turnover, turnover, missed 3.

The Aztecs got 23 points in a gutsy performance by Jaedon LeDee, who looked particularly bothered by the elevation and labored for much of his 33 minutes. Reese Waters (11) and Byrd (10) each had double figures off the bench.

But the rest of the starters scored zero, two, four and six points on a combined 5 of 20 shooting.

The other killer: The Aztecs reverted to the team that can’t shoot 3s, finishing 3 of 19 behind the arc.

Darius Brown II punished Aztecs guards for going under ball screens with 25 points on 5 of 9 shooting from deep. Great Osobor added 17 points on a night when the Aggies shot 49 percent overall and had a 36-26 advantage on points in the paint.

SDSU went with the same starters as Friday’s 81-70 home win against New Mexico, meaning Waters came off the bench. But their recent penchant for slow starts continued.

It was the seventh straight game that the Aztecs have trailed after five minutes, failing to score until backup center Miles Heide’s jump hook after 3½ minutes. With 13 minutes left in the half, they were still stuck on four.

They finally got the ball to LeDee, first on a high/low look from the top, then for back-to-back-to-back elbow jumpers that gave the visitors a 19-17. A 6-1 spurt to close the half gave the Aggies a 31-26 advantage at intermission.

The Aztecs had the ball to start the second half and promptly turned it over. By the time they got the ball back, they were down 10.

Brown hit (another) 3 from the left corner, then Jay Pal was whistled for an offensive foul on the inbounds and Isaac Johnson scored inside to make it 36-26.

The Aztecs got within five after a technical foul on Kalifa Sakho and had a chance to whittle the margin further, but Lamont Butler (0 of 5 shooting, zero assists, three turnovers) missed a 3 and soon the lead was double digits again.

Undeterred, the Aztecs kept chopping wood and got it to eight, then six, then three, then one on yet another LeDee elbow jumper, this one that hit the front rim, rolled around and dropped with 4:37 left.

Close again. But not enough again.

Notable

Next up: Saturday at Fresno State (7 p.m., CBS Sports Network) … The officiating crew: Verne Harris, Gregory Nixon and Chance Moore. (Moore worked the SDSU game at New Mexico that drew so much criticism.) … Fans at Utah State games receive a free frozen custard at a local eatery if the Aggies score 80 or more points. Slim chance that was happening with a 31-26 halftime score … Players on each team were assessed technical fouls: Waters for SDSU and Kalifa Sakho for Utah State.