San Diego State routs No. 21 Creighton to open Players Era Festival

LAS VEGAS — San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher and his players spewed all the usual cliches after a rare double-digit home loss against No. 3 Gonzaga eight days ago, about being young, about learning to play with each other, about getting back in the gym and getting better.

Well, they did.

The Aztecs took advantage of a No. 21-ranked Creighton team missing its starting point guard, winning 71-53 on Tuesday in the inaugural game of the Players Era Festival and continuing their crazy run of good fortune in Sin City.

The Aztecs are now 58-16 here over the last 16 seasons. This was their first game in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, but it’s Las Vegas all the same.

And Creighton should know. The last time these teams met in Las Vegas, across the freeway at the Orleans Arena in 2019, the Aztecs won by 31.

SDSU (3-1) now faces Oregon here Wednesday (4 p.m. ET, streamed on MAX) in the funky format of an event that was put together amid shifting NCAA regulations about nonconference tournaments that precluded it from using a traditional bracket. Saturday’s championship round is based on results from two pre-determined games Tuesday and Wednesday.

Beat Oregon, and the Aztecs will have a good shot at playing in the championship game because of its lopsided point differential against the Bluejays (4-2).

If you’re looking for a defining moment in Tuesday’s game, there were plenty to select from.

There was the flurry of threes from BJ Davis, who finished with 18 points (and nine rebounds at 6-2) on 7-of-11 shooting. There were the six straight possessions with baskets midway through the second half that pushed the lead to 16, punctuated by a pair of threes by Miles Byrd. There was also Magoon Gwath’s step-back at the first-half buzzer.

And then there was what happened with six minutes left. Creighton’s Pop Isaacs drove right and had his shot blocked by Byrd. Ryan Kalkbrenner, the 7-foot-1 all-American center, grabbed the loose ball and shot. Gwath swatted that.

Davis and Byrd (16 points) were the only Aztecs in double figures, which merely illustrated how much of a team effort it was. Ten different players scored, combining to shoot 48.4% overall and a blistering 8 of 17 behind the arc.

Creighton, by comparison, had only five players score and shot 33.9%. The absence of senior guard Steven Ashworth, out with a badly sprained ankle, was evident.

Basketball coaches, admittedly, aren’t above “borrowing” tactical strategies from other teams, and Nebraska’s plan against Kalkbrenner on Friday night in Omaha did not go unnoticed by the SDSU staff.

The plan: Front Kalkbrenner in the post and give backside help with the other big.

The sacrifice is leaving Creighton’s four-man, 6-10 Jackson McAndrew, open on the perimeter for threes. And McAndrew can shoot them, making a pair in the opening minutes to give the Bluejays an 8-4 lead.

But the scheme certainly worked on Kalkbrenner, who attempted only one shot in 39 minutes of Friday’s 74-63 loss against visiting Nebraska and didn’t score until 1:04 left in the first half against the Aztecs – when Gwath was unable to fight over the top and get in front.

At the other end, the Aztecs started slow, failing to hit the rim in their first two possessions, before a Gwath step-back in the lane broke the ice.

Then BJ Davis, the sophomore guard who barely played last season, took over. His deep 3-pointer gave the Aztecs a 25-16 lead and compelled a Creighton timeout.

Bluejays coach Greg McDermott countered with a counterintuitive strategy: sitting his all-American center for a guy, 6-9 senior Frederick King, who averages 8.4 minutes and 3.1 points.

King delivered, scoring the next five points and triggering a run that got the Bluejays back in the game. SDSU led 32-28 at the half after Gwath made another step-back at the buzzer.

Kalkbrenner got going in the second half, when he scored nine of his 11 points. But so did pretty much everyone on SDSU, which went 6 of 9 on threes in the second half before missing a couple late.

Notable

The MGM Grand Garden Arena, the former site of the Pac-12 tournament before T-Mobile Arena was built across the street, was downsized for this event, with the upper-level seats covered by black curtains … Only one of the three officials (Randy Richardson) regularly works SDSU games. The other two: James Breeding and Lucas Santos … The event’s unusual format means the two highest-rated teams here, No. 6 Houston and No. 9 Alabama, meet on the first day, meaning both can’t advance to the championship.

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