Mountain West title up for grabs as calendar flips to March

One week remains in the Mountain West men’s basketball regular season, and three teams are still alive for the outright conference title.

Utah State (24-5, 14-4) is in pole position to claim its second MWC championship in three years after surviving a war with Grand Canyon (18-11, 11-7) on Saturday night, 74-69.

“We weren’t perfect, but we battled through fatigue and we battled through not playing great offensively, and that matters this time of year,” Aggies head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “Toughness matters, and that’s what won the game tonight. We got down with just under five minutes to go, but then we went on a 7-0 run after that.”

The Aggies coughed up a 17-point first-half lead but rallied back to lock down sole possession of first place. Utah State, which travels to UNLV (15-14, 10-8) on Tuesday before a massive Saturday home matchup with New Mexico (22-7, 13-5), holds a one-game lead over San Diego State (19-9, 13-5) and the Lobos.

“We’ve got two games to go, and we’re the only team that controls our own destiny. That’s hard to do,” Calhoun said. “It’s really not about UNLV at this point, it’s about winning a championship. … If you win the game (at UNLV), you’re champs, and if you win two games you’re outright champs, so that needs to be our sole focus.”

New Mexico remained in the hunt for a second straight regular-season title by edging San Diego State at The Pit, 81-76. The Lobos erased an 11-point first-half deficit to earn a split with the Aztecs, who have dropped three of their last four games.

San Diego State and New Mexico are both firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” first-year Lobos head coach Eric Olen said. “Terrific response from a disappointing result (at Nevada) ... and we could not have got that done without 15,411 of our closest friends. … I think they call those ‘Pit games.’ That was fun.”

Grand Canyon and Nevada (19-10, 11-7) are tied for fourth place, one game above Boise State (18-11, 10-8), Colorado State (19-10, 10-8) and UNLV. The top four seeds receive a first-round bye for the MWC Tournament.

The Wolf Pack, which suffered an 85-83 overtime loss at UNLV on Saturday, owns the tiebreaker with Grand Canyon due to a 66-60 overtime home victory in January.

Colorado State took down San Jose State (8-21, 3-15) on the road, 85-73, for its seventh straight win. The Rams host Boise State next Saturday to close the regular season.

The Broncos, who host San Diego State on Tuesday before the road trip to Fort Collins, stayed alive for a first-round bye with a 69-53 victory at Fresno State (12-17, 6-12).

Air Force (3-26, 0-18) held a 62-59 lead with two minutes remaining at Wyoming (16-13, 7-11), but the Cowboys closed the game with seven unanswered points to avoid a catastrophic loss.