March 11, 2006

DENVER -

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San Diego State (23-8 overall; 13-3 MWC) looks for its second Mountain West Conference Tournament crown when it meets seventh-seeded Wyoming (14-17; 5-11 MWC) Saturday night in Denver at the Pepsi Center. Game time is set for 8:04 p.m. MST (7:04 p.m. PST). The game will be televised by ESPN.

The Aztecs, who are the top seed in a conference tournament for the first time in their 36-year Division I history, opened the championships in style Thursday with a 64-52 victory over Colorado State in the quarterfinals and pulled off a 63-60 semifinal win a day later over fourth-seeded UNLV.

On Friday evening, San Diego State held a 33-26 halftime lead, but the Rebels came out of the break to tie the score at 35 apiece and took a four-point lead, their largest of the contest, with 12:21 remaining. The rest of the game was a see-saw battle with UNLV breaking a 58-58 tie to go ahead by two with just 47 seconds remaining. Aztec Brandon Heath, however, answered with a three pointer to give SDSU a one-point lead and two John Sharper free throws secured the three-point victory.

Heath scored a game-high 22 points and recorded seven rebounds. Junior forward Marcus Slaughter, coming off a MWC record 19-rebound performance against Colorado State on Thursday, scored 16 points and grabbed 14 boards. It was the 28th double-double of his career and the 16th this season.

Of the 63 points SDSU scored on Friday, 58 were scored by non-seniors (92.1 percent). Non-seniors accounted for 165 of the 200 minutes played (82.5 percent).

Wyoming advanced to the conference final with its 60-47 victory over Utah late Friday night. Center Justin Williams posted the MWC's first triple-double in conference tournament history with his 10 points, 15 rebounds and 12 blocks, while Brad Jones added 20 points.

The Aztecs and Cowboys will be meeting for the 59th time with Wyoming owning a 33-25 series lead. In 2005-06, the Aztecs swept the regular-season series, winning 78-77 in overtime in Laramie on Jan. 28 and 91-72 in San Diego on March 1. This will be the two schools' second meeting in the last 10 days.

The two sides have split the two previous MWC tournament meetings in 2001 and 2002, but have never met in the finale. SDSU is 4-2 all-time against Wyoming in league tournament match-ups and is a perfect 3-0 overall in conference championship games.