Playing their first top-25 opponent of the season in the no. 14/12 Arizona Wildcats, the no. 17/19 San Diego State Aztecs men’s basketball squad played their worst basketball in the young season while running into the best three-point shooting team.

Going into play on Tuesday, Arizona led all Division 1 teams with a 48.0% three-point shooting average and came off a game where they shot 53% for three against Cincinnati in their Maui Invitational opener.

Arizona’s Courtney Ramey, a career 36.7% three-point shooter playing his second game of the year, went 5-for-5 from beyond the arc in his best single-game performance since the 2020-21 season. He is 8-for-10 to begin the year and averages 19 points per game.

Ramey and Kerr Kriisa combined for 42 points while the San Diego State defense gave up a season-high 87 points.

The most shocking piece of the San Diego State loss was the lack of offense from the Aztecs star-studded offensive lineup.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Ohio State limited the Cincinnati offense to just 53 points after the Bearkats put up 93 points on Monday night against Arizona in the Maui Invitational opener. But the Aztecs, who scored 88 points on the Ohio State offense, only managed a season-low 70 points against the Arizona defense.

The Aztecs opened the night missing their first eight three-point shots and finished the night with seven consecutive missed three-point attempts, with a stretch of 3-for-4 in between, thanks to Micah Parrish and Darrion Trammell.

Junior transfer Trammell led the team with 30 minutes on the floor and 21 points scored with three steals on defense.

Parrish (10 points) was the only other Aztec in double digits with Nathan Mensah (nine) and Keshad Johnson (eight) nearly hitting the mark.

There are good losses, but this was not one of them due to the poor play. But they also went up against a difficult team that absolutely deserved a better ranking than they came in with.

Aztecs prepare for no. 9/9 Arkansas Razorbacks

San Diego State will face even tougher competition in the Arkansas Razorbacks for third place Wednesday night, who fell to no. 10/8 Creighton Blue Jays in the other semifinal matchup in the Maui Invitational.

Arkansas’s defense ranks top-three in the country in defensive efficiency and will be the toughest defense the Aztec offense has seen yet. They will need a lot more three-point shots to go in to come out with their first top-10 victory since 2019.

The two top-20 teams will face off at 7 p.m. PST from Lahaina, Maui on ESPN2.