Mountain West Tournament: BYU vs. SDSU, Part 3; No. 1 Seed on the Line?

The day after Jimmer Fredette went ballistic and scored a BYU Cougar-record 52 points and the San Diego St. Aztecs got all they could handle from the UNLV Rebels, the matchup America was hoping for is set.

Taking the first two meetings, No. 8 BYU looks to further assert their dominance against No. 7 SDSU.

The Aztecs' only two losses of the season were against Jimmer and BYU; therefore, having a win in the MWC game, which would be back-to-back tournament titles, would be that much sweeter for SDSU.

Both teams have been considered for possible No. 1 seeds for the NCCA tournament at one point late in the season, but SDSU's loss to BYU, then BYU's Brandon Davies getting dismissed, which led to an 18-point drubbing at the hands of New Mexico, changed that.

Now that a few teams who were also in contention have fallen, the winner of the MWC championship game has a huge chance to be a No. 1 seed and have the best chance at navigating the tough road to the Final Four.

Brandon Davies played a key roll in the latest meeting of the two teams. With him out and no real replacement, SDSU will have a chance to exploit the Cougars down near the basket with Malcolm Thomas and Kawhi Leonard.

Leonard and Thomas combined for 31 points and 16 rebounds against UNLV in the semifinals—look for an even bigger game today in the finals.

The Aztecs' senior guard D.J. Gay is the other key to the Aztecs getting the win. Gay scored 15 points including the winning shot with 4.9 seconds left against UNLV, and him being in the game like he was last night will make it that much tougher on BYU to pull out the MWC championship.

The Cougars will need Jackson Emery and either Charles Abouo or Chris Collinsworth to have big games for BYU to have a decent chance at getting a win tonight.

Abouo, who was a big factor in BYU's squeaked-out win versus TCU in the quarterfinals, was a no-show yesterday, only tallying two points and seven rebounds before fouling out.

If tonight turns into the Jimmer show once again, BYU has a chance, but keeping him under 30 points will give SDSU a much better shot a repeating as MWC champs.

SDSU looks to send off BYU in their last Mountain West Conference game before heading over to the West Coast Conference with a bad taste in their mouths, but BYU has their sights on going out on top of the mountain.