San Diego » Despite being heckled almost continually by UNLV fans on Saturday night, BYU basketball star Lee Cummard said after the 75-74 loss that he would not mind getting another shot at the Rebels in Las Vegas, although he has lost to them six straight times at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The rest of the Cougars, however, would probably just as soon face any other team in the first round when the Mountain West Conference tournament begins next month.

To avoid the Rebels in a MWC tournament quarterfinal game, BYU almost certainly has to win Tuesday night's game at San Diego State (8:30 p.m. MST, the mtn.) because UNLV is close to a lock to play in the fourth-fifth place game.

The loser Tuesday night is probably going to finish fourth or fifth in the league, barring some major upsets in their remaining three conference games. BYU has not won at SDSU since 2003.

"Just another tough road venue for us," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "We just have to go out and play another game where we really battle and play hard, and then see what happens."

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the game -- arguably the biggest regular-season matchup in Rose's four-year tenure as head coach -- to the Cougars. Both teams are 8-4 in MWC play, two full games behind league-leading Utah, and both are clearly on the bubble for an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.

The Aztecs (18-7 overall) will be playing without one of their starting forwards, sophomore Billy White. He suffered a knee hyperextension early in SDSU's 75-49 loss to New Mexio on Saturday and Fisher said Monday that White definitely won't play against the Cougars.

White is a key cog both offensively and defensively for the Aztecs and has made 21 straight field goal attempts. He guarded BYU's leading scorer, Jonathan Tavernari, in BYU's 77-71 win in Provo last month, and that task will now likely fall to freshman Tim Shelton.

"San Diego State is one of the teams in the league that does have a deep roster, and so the players that they will bring in to play for Billy will be really capable, good players -- players who have hurt us in the past, too," Rose said after calling White a terrific player who will be missed.

The coach said during Monday's MWC teleconference that Saturday's game was "real physical" for the Cougars and that several players were sore but OK.

Four BYU starters -- Tavernari, Cummard, Jimmer Fredette and Jackson Emery -- played 32 or more minutes on Saturday, but Rose said they are used to the quick turnaround between games and should be ready to go.

"These games are really important, and we are trying to expand the bench as much as possible, but the games are tight and they are going right down to the wire, so you want to have your most experienced guys out there who give you your best chance to win," he said.

Along with playing for their NCAA Tournament lives, the Cougars say they are motivated because they still have hope of capturing a piece of the conference title for the third straight year.

If they can win their remaining four games and go 12-4, they could actually attain the top seed for the MWC tournament if everything falls their way. For instance, if BYU, Utah and New Mexico all finish 12-4, the Cougs would own the tiebreaker over the Utes and Lobos because they would have swept SDSU.

But that's a big if, the Cougars acknowledge.

"We played really hard [against UNLV]," Rose said. "We need to play better. We need to execute a little bit better, and be more consistent, defensively."

drew@sltrib.com