LAS VEGAS -- Jeff Linder said he knew his team wouldn't be scared of the Aztecs.

They proved that over 40 minutes this afternoon, huh?

Wyoming's young guns took the No. 1 team in the league to the brink before falling to San Diego State 69-66 inside the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

The Cowboys' first-year head coach had a plan for those Aztecs. He slowed down the offense -- big time -- despite dropping 111 points on San Jose State roughly 24 hours earlier.

It nearly worked.

Here are some interesting numbers and stats from this one:

19

That's how many times this game was tied today. Wyoming led for 6:49. The game was tied for 11:00. Fourteen times the lead changed.

4

That is the largest lead the No. 19 team in the country had in this one. Wyoming led by as many as three.

69

The last time these two teams met back in January, San Diego State put 98 points on the scoreboard. They put up 79 shots that night in sunny California and hit 60.7% of their shots. Today, SDSU shot the ball 71 times and made just 49% from the field.

31

That's where Hunter Maldonado now ranks on Wyoming's all-time scoring list after netting a dozen against the Aztecs. The junior from Colorado Springs now has 1,098 career points.

88

These programs have met on a basketball court this many times. SDSU now holds a 47-41 advantage and has won 10 of the last 11 meetings. The last time the Cowboys were victorious against the Aztecs was in the MW title game back in 2015.

9

These two have met in this tournament this many times in history. SDSU holds a 6-3 advantage.

14

That's how many wins the Cowboys finished with this year. UW hasn't won that many games in a season since claiming 20 back in 2017-18.

21

That's how many points Xavier DuSell netted today. That was a career-high for the true freshman from Arizona. His previous career best came 24 hours earlier when he scored 19 against San Jose State. In both of UW's MW Tournament games, DuSell started 4-for-4 from three. He made 11-of-17 from deep in Vegas.

42

That's how many points Graham Ike scored in Sin City. True, 32 of those came in the opener, but the true freshman did pull down a career-high nine rebounds against the Aztecs.

21

That's how many games Marcus Williams scored double-figures in. That's out of 25 games during his first season in Laramie. The league's Freshman of the Year netted a dozen today.

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