Matt Mitchell leads San Diego State to another MW title game
It took awhile for San Diego State’s Matt Mitchell to get going in the Mountain West tournament.
Once he did, it was clear why he was named player of the year by the league’s coaches.
Mitchell scored 15 straight points as the top-seeded Aztecs gained separation and held on for a 77-70 victory over fifth-seeded UNR in a semifinal matchup at the Thomas & Mack Center on Friday night.
The Aztecs will play Utah State, a 62-50 winner over Colorado State in Friday’s late, at 3 p.m. Saturday in the championship game. It’s the seventh time in eight years San Diego State (22-4) has reached the finals.
“That’s very special,” said Mitchell, who will play in his fourth title game Saturday. “I’m happy to be a part of the conference tournament championship and to be able to be on a team like this and play in a program that really believes in their guys. Coach says it best, we get better as the year goes on and find ways to win games consistently.”
The Wolf Pack were able to hang close for much of the first half, largely by locking down Mitchell.
The senior forward went 1-of-7 from the field and missed all three of his 3-point attempts in the first half after making one shot and scoring eight points in the quarterfinal win over Wyoming on Thursday.
His struggles wouldn’t last long.
Mitchell — the third player in school history to surpass 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists and 100 steals — made his first five attempts of the second half. Three of those shots were from beyond the arc.
“It was good to see him get his rhythm on the 3-point shot,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “When he’s making that, it makes us really dangerous.”
No. 19 San Diego State, which has won 13 straight games overall, is now 30-2 in Mitchell’s career when he scores at least 15 points.
Mitchell finished with 24 points and eight rebounds, but it was the early second half run where his impact was most significant.
He scored 15 points during a span of 5:26 as the lead expanded to 10 points, keyed by a 3-pointer on his first attempt out of the locker room.
“That felt good going in,” he said. “I didn’t hit one in the last game, so I felt like I had to get myself going. If the defense is giving me the shot, I’m going to take it. I’m that type of guy and that type of player.”
He had looked like anything but the superstar he has become over the first three halves in Las Vegas. Mitchell, however, never lost faith in himself or the gameplan.
“The message at halftime was to stick together,” he said of a first half where his team made 12 of 31 shots, but held UNR to 25 percent. “I don’t think we were doing anything wrong, but we could have tightened up a little bit. So we did that in the second half.
“I think I just did my job on the team as being the aggressor. I came out and tried to be the aggressor and it paid off, taking some of the attention off some of the other guys on the team.”
Jordan Schakel added 15 points and nine rebounds in the victory.
The Aztecs did their typical job on the defensive end. Grant Sherfield and Desmond Cambridge combined for 42 points for the Wolf Pack, but the dynamic backcourt combined to make 10 of 30 from the field.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.
