San Diego State 56, Colorado State 43

[March 14, 2015]  No.25 San Diego State 56, Colorado State 43: Aqeel Quinn had 16 points,including three 3-pointers, as the Aztecs advanced to the MountainWest tournament championship game with a victory over the Rams in LasVegas.

WinstonShepard also had 16 points for second-seeded San Diego State (26-7),which faces Wyoming in Saturday's title game. Dwayne PoleeII had 12 points - all in the first half - and six rebounds offthe bench for the Aztecs.

StantonKidd had 10 points, eight rebounds and five blocks for third-seededColorado State (27-6), which shot 32.1 percent from the floor. DanielBejarano had nine points and nine rebounds for the Rams, though heshot just 4-of-13 from the floor, including 1-of-6 from 3-pointrange.

Thegame was close in the early going with the Rams going up four onTiel Daniels' layup with less than 13 minutes to play in the first half, but Colorado Statemanaged just four points over a span of nearly 10 minutes as San Diego Statewent on a 15-4 run to go up seven on a pair of Polee free throws.John Gillon hit a 3-pointer to pull the Rams within four but SanDiego State pushed the lead to six at halftime, holding ColoradoState to 28 percent shooting in the first 20 minutes.

Itdidn't get much better for the Rams in the second half as the Aztecscame out firing and pushed the advantage to 12 on Quinn's jumper withless than 17 minutes to play. Colorado State made a mini run, cutting the deficitto seven on Daniels' dunk with just over seven minutes to play, but Quinn hita 3 and two free throws sandwiched around a Shepard jumper to pushthe lead to 14.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The Rams weremissing their leading scorer and rebounder, J.J. Avila, who sufferedan ankle injury in the quarterfinal win over Fresno State. … SanDiego State advanced to the Mountain West tournament title game forthe sixth time in seven years. … The Rams came into the gameaveraging 73 points.

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