San Diego State lost the last two Mountain West Tournament championship games to Utah State, and hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2018.

In a battle between the league’s two most stringent defenses, San Diego State exhibited its dominance with a 10-2 edge in steals. The turnover margin was seven, with Utah State committing 16 costly turnovers the Aztecs turned into 14 points.
 
Already having suffered a regular-season sweep by Utah State, the Aztecs wasted no time at distancing themselves from the second-seeded Aggies by using a 6-0 run to start the second half and take a 34-24 lead and never really looked back.
 
The first half was eerily similar to last year’s championship game, which saw the teams combine to shoot 19 of 58 (32%) in the first half while scoring 50 points. In this game, the teams were 21 for 57 (36.8%) and combined to score 52 pts in the first half.
 
Outside of Queta, the Aggies couldn’t get much going with their offense, as the 7-footer had 12 of the team’s 24 points. While Queta was 4 of 6 from the floor in the first 20 minutes, the rest of the Aggies were just 5 of 18 (27.7%) from the field. Utah State was also plagued with turnovers, committing eight under San Diego State’s tenacious defense.