San Diego State Clinches Berth

Lou Kelly’s last-second fling from half court put a fitting finish to a wild three days of basketball in the Mountain West, a conference tournament that produced the wildest of results here Saturday night: San Diego State is going to the NCAA tournament.

Kelly, one of the stars of a Nevada Las Vegas team that rode a nice home-court advantage and a great run of hot shooting and pesky defense into the final, got the ball near half court with time nearly elapsed and his Runnin’ Rebels trailing, 78-75. He let it fly in time to beat the clock, and it soared toward the basket.

There were few in the near sellout crowd of 14,347 at Thomas and Mack who didn’t believe the shot could fall. After all, this had been a three-day event that had two overtime games and a thrill a minute, with only one of the seven games being won by more than 10 points.

So when Kelly’s fling hit the back of the rim, meaning it missed by perhaps an inch, all that was left was for everybody in the place to sit for a minute or two in amazement as the San Diego State fans stormed the court in celebration.

Kelly’s shot may have been the last of his career, depending on whether UNLV gets an NIT bid. The senior from San Bernardino Cajon High said it looked good the minute he let it fly.

“I made one like that in high school, so I was ready.” he said. “I wasn’t going to celebrate because I was just thinking about overtime. At least, this way, I go out the way I wanted to, with the ball in my hands.”

Before this tournament, San Diego State probably wanted to go out in a similar regard, with a good effort and heads held high. The automatic NCAA bid was certainly incentive, but for a team that hasn’t been in the NCAA event since 1985 and had been 0-14 in the conference only two years ago, the middle-of-the-pack 7-7 Mountain West record the Aztecs brought here should have presented limited expectations.

But when Coach Steve Fisher’s team took control early Saturday night, behind the inside play of senior Randy Holcomb, they did, indeed, look like an NCAA caliber team. But it wasn’t until Deandre Moore sank two free throws with 3.3 seconds left that San Diego State finally shook a UNLV team that just wouldn’t go away.

San Diego State’s tournament win, giving the veteran Fisher a longshot chance to win a second NCAA title to go with the one he took at Michigan in 1989, presented an interesting dilemma for the NCAA’s selection committee today. It meant that there are three Mountain West teams with a legitimate claim at a berth. Besides San Diego State, regular-season champion Wyoming and perennial-powerhouse Utah, both 21-8, have earned a long look from NCAA decision-makers.