LAS VEGAS — Oregon coach Dana Altman watched San Diego State dismantle No. 21-ranked Creighton on Tuesday afternoon, noting that the Aztecs are always going to be elite defensively but when they’re also shooting well, well, then they become a real problem.

“San Diego State shot the heck out of it,” Altman said. “I hope they got that out of their system.”

The Aztecs didn’t, still shooting the heck out of it Wednesday afternoon — better, even, than Tuesday — against the Ducks on Day 2 of the Players Era Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

They just didn’t rebound at a high level, or even a medium level, and Oregon made them pay in a 78-68 decision that sends the Ducks to Saturday night’s championship game with a shot at $500,000 in addition to the $1 million that each of the eight teams here already receives for its NIL kitty.

“We didn’t come out here and handle business the correct way,” senior Nick Boyd said. “If you look back at the game, all the ways we lost were self-inflicted. … You come to a tournament like this, there’s no room for error.”

The Aztecs (3-2) had to wait a couple hours to learn when they’ll play Saturday: in the third-place game here at 4 p.m. Texas A&M beat Creighton 77-73 to also finish 1-1 in their group, but the tiebreaker is overall points differential and the Aztecs were plus-eight to the Aggies’ minus-six.

They had to wait even longer to learn the opponent, determined by the results of Wednesday’s late games in the opposite group. That took until 12:04 a.m., when No. 6 Houston beat Notre Dame 65-54 to clinch a spot in the third-place game.

Win or lose Saturday, the MESA Foundation, SDSU’s NIL collective, is in line for more money. The additional payouts go four deep: $250,000 for second place, $150,000 for third, $100,000 for fourth.

The Aztecs also lost by double-digits against No. 3 Gonzaga this season, but that had a different aftertaste, tinged with optimism and promise. This was dejection and disappointment.

Consider: The Aztecs had won 47 straight games when making at least half their shot attempts, and they shot 50.9% (29 of 57). The Ducks shot 44.6% … and won by 10.

You didn’t have to look far in the box score to understand why.

Rebounding: 41-24, Ducks.

Offensive boards: 16-6, Ducks.

Second-chance points: 18-4, Ducks. (In the first half, it was 18-0.)

And this against a team that was blitzed for 25 second-chance points (on 21 offensive boards) a day earlier in an 80-70 win against No. 20 Texas A&M.

“We looked at their numbers,” Altman said of SDSU. “They were just plus-one (average rebounds per game) on the season. After getting our tails kicked (Tuesday) on the boards, we just felt like we could make that move today. We just thought the physicality of that game kind of prepared us for this one.

“That’s all I talked about pregame: Beat them on the boards. We thought we could get them on the boards.”

The Aztecs got 18 points from BJ Davis and 15 from Boyd – nearly half their scoring. But the duo went from a combined 15 rebounds Tuesday to five Wednesday, illustrating how much they rely on guards on the glass given the deficiencies of their youthful rotation of bigs.

“We’re still growing as a rebounding team,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “I thought Jared (Coleman-Jones) did a good job early in the game rebounding, but he got in foul trouble and sat the end of the first half. So then we have a redshirt freshman, a true freshman and a sophomore out there trying to rebound against really good players.”

The Ducks (7-0) also had an edge in 3-pointers (10 to six) and made free throws (18 to four).