Glenn Connelly / Photo EditorLAS VEGAS 8212;- After the pandemonium died down, after the music stopped blaring, after the hundreds of fans cleared the court, San Diego State men’s basketball sixth-year senior guard Kelvin Davis strolled to the postgame press conference. He took three steps up to the podium, pulled out his chair, plopped his 2010 Mountain West Conference Tournament Championship trophy on the table and flashed the media a big smile.
Davis has been at SDSU for three years. He’s seen Aztec greats such as Lorrenzo Wade come and go without hoisting a trophy. So after his SDSU squad beat UNLV, 55-45, in the MWC Tournament Championship game on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, he wanted to show the world the new trophy he had worked so hard to earn.
“We played hard and coach told us all season, “You play hard and win games, you have an opportunity to play for a championship,'” Davis said. “We did. And we won.”
Davis scored nine points on 4-of-7 shooting in the championship game and played 32 minutes. His teammate, freshman forward Kawhi Leonard, scored 16 points and piled up a career-high 21 rebounds. Junior guard D.J. Gay, who played 119 minutes of a possible 120 this tournament, racked up 11 points and two rebounds. Even the Aztecs with broken hands (freshman guard Chase Tapley) and broken fingers (sophomore guard Tyrone Shelley) made their marks on the championship game.
“This was a wonderful team victory and we savor and underline “team,'” head coach Steve Fisher said. “The individual accolades are nice, but you don’t win unless you have a team.”
SDSU beat Colorado State in the quarterfinals last week, 72-71, setting up a huge game against then-No. 8 New Mexico in the semifinals. The Aztecs played their best game of the season, shooting 51.9 percent from the floor, and pulled out the 72-69 victory against the nationally ranked Lobos. On Saturday, they finished off their magical tournament run with a controlling 55-45 win against the Rebels on their own home floor.
“I felt great pride for our university and particularly for our men’s basketball team and our athletic program,” Fisher said. “I told our team, “Enjoy that bus ride home, hug that trophy, and savor this moment, make it an indelible mark you’ll never forget because it doesn’t happen often.'”
SDSU will make its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2005-06, when it also won the MWC Tournament. That year, the Aztecs lost 87-83 in the first round to Indiana. This afternoon, SDSU will find out its seed and its opponent, which can be read at www.thedailyaztec.com‘s LIVE Aztec Gameday Blog today.
“I can finally take a deep breath,” Gay said. “(The NCAA Tournament) is something I’ve been waiting for the last two years, something growing up as a little kid I always wanted to play in, and now I have the opportunity to do so.”
