Strong second half lifts No. 24 SDSU to victory over USD – San Diego Union-Tribune

The San Diego State basketball team played Saturday night at Viejas Arena.

The entire building and a promising season almost went up in flames.

The No. 24 Aztecs blew a double-digit lead in the first half, trailed in the second half and ultimately pulled away with a 74-57 win over a University of San Diego team that was a 24.5-point underdog ranked 329th (of 364) in the NET metric, nearly lost at home to a Division III school last week and was four days removed from a 37-point beating in the Unranked removes Arizona State.

But SDSU coach Brian Dutcher always tells his players that they have a constant target on their backs and that the team you see on film is not the one you see on the field, especially when it’s you Opponents come out of town with a massive chip on their shoulder.

In the season opener, the Aztecs struggled to defeat a UC San Diego team that was playing its first game as a full Division I member.

Now it’s a four-point game against the Toreros in the middle of the second half.

“Hey, we’re the city champions,” Dutcher said. “We got both Division I teams.”

It wasn’t as easy as the final score suggested, not after we went from an 11-point lead to a 35-33 lead early in the second half, not after we’d jumped back out to a double-digit lead and watched that one dwindled to four within seconds. He fouled USD’s David Simon on a 3-point attempt, then dropped another 3 points to a man who came into the game 0 of 10 from points this season.

This is Bendji Pierre, a 6-foot, 230-pound senior forward who came to USD from Indian River JC in Florida and is averaging 2.5 points with a high of six on 21.1% shooting. achieved. He finished with 17 points on 5 of 11 shooting from behind the arc.

“They hit some 3s,” Nick Boyd said. “That got them going, that gave them life. They feel good, they are confident.”

Dutcher: “The 3-point shot is the great equalizer in basketball. I saw him on video and knew he could shoot. He hadn’t done one yet, but he has great confidence. If there’s a night where someone who doesn’t earn much makes five, then the game is close.”

Pierre: “I’ve been in a crisis for two weeks, but my teammates always tell me to keep shooting because they know I’m a good shooter. … I love basketball. That’s what I do.”

The problem: The rest of the team was one of 21.

The Toreros (3-6) shot just 19.2% in the second half and 30.9% in the game, their lowest mark in a regular-season contest in three seasons under coach Steve Lavin. Point guard Kjay Bradley Jr., a transfer from San Diego City College who averaged 16.8 points, finished the game with seven points and eight turnovers in 35 minutes. Starting player Steven Jamerson II only played 13 minutes due to a foul.

“What I really emphasize with our players is that it’s about getting better, and I think this was a big week for us,” said Lavin, whose team led 17-5 at Arizona State on Tuesday it has been outscored 85-36 in its last 33 minutes. “We have taken a step in the right direction, but we are not looking for moral victories, as coaches like to say. I was so disappointed with the result but encouraged by the progress we made in a difficult environment against a good team.”

The Aztecs got big plays from three of their greats, but not the ones you would expect. Freshman Magoon Gwath went from 25 points and 10 rebounds three days earlier at Fresno State to zero and one in just 13 minutes (and none after being substituted 55 seconds into the second half) after scoring one early in the game suffered a serious fall.

“He looked tired,” Dutcher said. “I think he put in too much work this week. I listened to (Director of Player Development Aguek Arop) before the game and (Gwath) trained extra. As a young college freshman, sometimes too much work is too much work.

“That’s what I love about this team. These kids love being in the gym. They want to get better. But they also need to know how to rest. Sometimes rest is just as important as work.”

Freshman Pharaoh Compton added 12 points and six rebounds. Sophomore Miles Heide scored eight and nine in his best game of the season. Senior Jared Coleman-Jones had 13 and six.

The other saviors were in the backfield on a night when BJ Davis had just two points and Wayne McKinney III was held scoreless in 17 minutes against his former team.

Nick Boyd constantly had defenders on his hip for one-one layups en route to 17 points. Miles Byrd had 13. Freshman Taj DeGourville, whose previous high against Division I opponents was five points, had all nine of his points in the first 12 minutes.

That improves the Aztecs to 6-2 with two nonconference games remaining: Wednesday here against Cal Baptist and, after a 10-day break for final exams, Dec. 21 against Cal in San Jose.

“We want to play good basketball,” Boyd said, “and I don’t think we did that for 40 minutes, so we still have a lot of work to do on that.” … We lost focus in the first half, and at halftime We had to regain that concentration and come back and take care of business in the second half.”

Remarkable

One of the officers was Mike Littlewood. Maybe you remember the name. The BYU alum and former BYU baseball coach played in six SDSU games last season (the Aztecs went 3-3 with him and 23-8 without him), including a March 7 loss at UNLV in which he gave Dutcher a rare technical Foul caused. This was his first SDSU game since then. … Also on the three-man team was Randy Richardson – for the fourth time in eight games this season. …

The Aztecs wore red uniforms for the first time this season. … Compton was called for a technical foul with 1:43 left in an 18-point game after a Byrd 3 … SDSU is now 15-3 in its last 18 games against the West Coast Conference. It also won for the 23rd consecutive time by keeping its opponent’s shooting percentage below 35%. The Aztecs are 59-2 under Dutcher when they get it done… On Saturday, Dutcher celebrated his 100th home win as head coach. He is 100-12 at Viejas Arena.

Originally published: December 7, 2024 at 9:05 pm PST