After practice Tuesday, San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher talked getting through Wednesday night’s game against Cal Baptist unscathed and getting to a 10-day break “so we can fix some things.”

He’ll have a long list.

The 23rd-ranked Aztecs nearly blew a 19-point lead in the second half before hanging on for a 81-75 win against a veteran Lancers team that starts a junior and four seniors.

It was an impressive display of offensive prowess by the Aztecs (8-2), with a variety of shots from a variety of individuals. Ten players played. All 10 had scored by the midpoint of the second half.

They needed it, too, the way the Lancers were shooting it and, on the occasion they missed, punking the Aztecs for offensive rebounds.

A 16-4 run by Cal Baptist cut the margin to four and coaxed a Dutcher timeout with 1:46 left. But the Aztecs perfectly milked the shot clock and just beat it with a layup by Nick Boyd (16 points) for a 79-73 lead.

Then the trademark defense, absent for long stretches all night, returned and resulted in a shot-clock violation after two Lancers airballs. The Aztecs called another timeout, milked the clock again, missed and got the ball back when the rebound bounced off a Lancers player.

A pair of free throws by Miles Byrd (19 points) with 7.5 seconds left sealed it.

There was no panic when Cal Baptist opened the game 8 of 11 overall and 3 of 5 behind the 3-point arc, and led 21-18 midway through the first half.

There were defensive tweaks to be made. Mostly, though, it was a matter of patience, of waiting for the Lancers’ sword to dull.

The regression to the mean ultimately came, with a 10-0 run powered by … Demarshay Johnson Jr.?

The 10th man in a nine-man rotation found himself on the floor with 9:36 left in the half after Pharaoh Compton picked up two early fouls. In his three-minute shift, the Aztecs were plus-seven points – including a strong post move across the lane, capped by a fallaway jumper.

The Aztecs would push the lead to 12 as the Lancers went 6½ minutes without a basket while the host scored on four straight possessions and seven of eight. The margin would have been nine at the half had officials not overturned Taj DeGourville’s jumper at the buzzer after a video review.

Notable

This was the first meeting between SDSU and CBU in men’s basketball.

• Adam Seiko, a member of the SDSU team that reached the 2023 national championship game, was in attendance.

• DeGourville wore a clear protective mask after taking a hit to his nose in practice Monday.

• CBU forward AJ Braun was assessed a Flagrant 1 foul in the first half for elbowing Boyd in the head midway through the first half. Boyd left the game but returned three minutes later.

• The Aztecs were back in their home whites after wearing red uniforms against USD on Saturday.

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