BOSTON — San Diego State forward Jaedon LeDee was asked Wednesday about getting a rematch of the national championship game against the Connecticut Huskies.

"It could have been anybody," LeDee said. "It could have been UConn. It could have been Kentucky. It could have Boys or Girls Scouts. It doesn't matter."

Actually, it did. It was the UConn Huskies.

These UConn Huskies.

The exhausted, jet-lagged, undersized Aztecs climbed into the ring against the NCAA Tournament's No. 1 overall seed in the Sweet 16, took their swing and ended up on their backs just like UConn's previous eight opponents in the Big Dance. They hung around for a half before losing, 82-52, at Boston's TD Garden, just 85 miles from the Huskies' campus.

That makes UConn 3-0 in the all-time series, all in the NCAA Tournament, all in the Sweet 16 or later. In the previous two, the Huskies won it all.

That makes it nine straight NCAA Tournament wins, all by 15 or more points. The three this year are by an average of 28.7 points.

The UConn Invitational, people are calling it.

There's an expression in cycling when the peloton splits and the lead group starts pedaling away while the other half furiously chases it, that the rubber band stretches and stretches and stretches. And ultimately snaps.

Midway through the second half, the rubber band snapped.

An Aztecs team that had led or been down one point in all 10 of its losses this season, that was within four points late in the first half, suddenly looked up at the giant scoreboard in TD Garden and saw themselves trailing by 32.

The box score was littered with reasons why, but one stood out — literally and figuratively. The Aztecs allowed 10 offensive rebounds in last year's final … and 12 at halftime Thursday night without Nathan Mensah, Keshad Johnson and Aguek Arop.

The Huskies finished with 21 offensive boards — six by 6-foot-5 guard Tristen Newton — that allowed to them to extend possessions despite shooting 46.2%, under their season average of 49.6% that ranks sixth nationally. They had four on one possession. Total rebounds: 59-29.

The Aztecs shot 36.2% overall and were just 5 of 22 behind the 3-point arc after blistering the nylon for 13 treys in a 28-point win against Yale four days earlier.

LeDee scored their first seven points and 11 of their first 16, but finished with "only" 18 after scoring 32 and 26 last week in Spokane. Micah Parrish was the only other Aztec in double figures with 10. Lamont Butler had seven points and six assists.

If the idea was to hang around and keep the tournament's No. 1 overall seed within single digits, the Aztecs accomplished that for a half, at least.

They won the opening tip, something they have with increased infrequency this season, and worked the ball to LeDee to free-throw jumper and a 2-0 lead. At the first media timeout, they were still ahead, 10-9 compliments of a Darrion Trammell 3.

The problem was, they couldn't stop UConn at the other end. The Huskies scored on 12 of their first 15 possessions and had 27 points just nine minutes into the game — a rate of 180 points per 100 possessions.

Some context: The national average is 106.1 and the national leader (Illinois) is at 126.8.

Some more: They were doing it against an opponent ranked eighth nationally in defensive efficiency.

The Aztecs eventually couldn't keep up with the torrid offensive pace, had a few empty possessions and trailed 27-16.

Then, down eight, LeDee got his second foul with 6:33 left in the half and coach Brian Dutcher had a decision to make: Stick with his history and sub out his leading scorer (the Aztecs rank 331st in Division I in two-foul participation), or roll the dice and leave him in.

Dutcher did a little of both. He left LeDee for two more minutes, and the Aztecs trimmed the margin to five.

Then he took him out for the final 4:27, and the Aztecs made only basket and trailed 40-31 at intermission.

It might have been closer, except Reese Waters stumbled trailing UConn sharpshooter Cam Spencer over the second of two staggered screens and Spencer calmly drained the open 3 (as he has 44% of the time this season).

But it could have been worse. A year ago, they trailed the Huskies by 12 at halftime.

"We're not going away, we're not going away," one particularly vocal SDSU fan kept screaming.

A year ago, the Aztecs whittled away the deficit to five with five minutes to go. This year, it went in the opposite direction.

The rubber band snapped.

Notable

The officials: Roger Ayers (ranked No. 4 in the Kenpom ref ratings), Tony Henderson (38) and Jeff Clark (51). All three are East Coast-based and haven't seen SDSU this season. Between them, they've worked eight UConn games this season. Over their careers, they've done three combined SDSU games — all at the Maui Invitational, all SDSU losses. Ayers worked the Final Four last year but was on UConn-Miami … Dutcher cleared the bench and put in the walk-ons for the final minute. In all, 14 players saw action … Freshman guard BJ Davis scored a layup in traffic at the buzzer … About the only statistical category that the Aztecs won was blocks, with four to UConn's one.

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