Parrish’s layup with 10.4 seconds left lifts No. 25 Aztecs to 63-62 win over UC Irvine

SAN DIEGO — Micah Parrish made a layup with 10.4 seconds left for No. 25 San Diego State, which blew a 16-point lead before rallying to beat scrappy UC Irvine 63-62 on Saturday night.

Darrion Trammell missed a 3-pointer, Jay Pal rebounded and fed Parrish, who made the bucket and drew a foul. He missed the free throw, UC Irvine rebounded and Justin Hohn missed a 3-pointer with about four seconds left.

“UC Irvine, they play hard and have a good team and got after us,” Parrish said. “Without the offensive rebound by Jay Pal it wouldn’t happen. It was a team effort.”

The Aztecs (8-2) were playing without Jaedon LeDee, the nation’s sixth-leading scorer, and went nearly 14 minutes without a field goal as they watched their lead shrink and then disappear.

Hohn banked in a 3-pointer with 58.4 seconds left for a 62-57 lead but missed two free throws with 41.5 seconds to go. Pal made a free throw and Trammell hit a 3-pointer with 30.5 seconds to pull the Aztecs within one before Parrish’s winning shot.

“If you didn’t have a vested interest, if you weren’t the Aztec coach or an Aztec fan, you’d be, ‘Man, this is exciting.’ ” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “But I wanted to win. So it’s exciting that we won.

“I tell the kids the same thing every year when we’re in a tight game like this and we’re down five, ‘We’re going to have 15 more games that are just like this,’ ” Dutcher said. “It’s going to be anybody’s game to win with five minutes to go and we have to find a way to make enough plays to win. And we did.”

This was the second straight game in which the Aztecs gave up 50% shooting in the second half and were outrebounded.

“There were enough mistakes to teach to, but the joy of winning and the joy of competing is so great that nine days off, I’m…