San Diego State hangs on to late lead, get nervy win at Boise State

Mark Zeigler, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jan 4, 2025

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BOISE, Idaho — It was San Diego State against Boise State, which means we might as well have just fast-forwarded through pre-game introductions, the entire first half, all of halftime, and all of the second half until the closing few minutes.

Six of the last seven meetings have gone down to the wire, all decided by two possessions or less, three by a single point, another by two points in overtime.

This was no different.

The twist: The Aztecs made plays down the stretch and won, 76-68.

That hadn’t been the case in recent years, especially in three straight wrenching losses at ExtraMile Arena, which was sold out for the CBS national telecast.

But Brian Dutcher’s young, inexperienced roster that was missing a key rotation piece built an eight-point lead, then made enough plays over a nervy final few minutes to secure a huge road win.

Nervy, because of what happened in the Aztecs’ last game, a 67-66 loss at home against Utah State. SDSU led by 18 in the first half and by seven with 90 seconds to go.

Huge, because they had lost six of seven at ExtraMile Arena.

Huge, because the Broncos have finished first or second in the Mountain West the previous three seasons and were picked to win it again this year.

Huge, because the Broncos were 6-0 at home this season by an average of 27.3 points.

Huge, because it relieves the pressure with another daunting road assignment — at New Mexico at altitude — looming next Saturday.

Even as fans filed out of sold-out ExtraMile Arena, with the Aztecs up 10 inside a minute to go, the win was far from secure. The Aztecs missed five of their next eight free throws, plus turned it over against the press. At one point, Boise State got it down to five and had the ball, but missed a 3-point attempt.

It was a common theme. Boise State (11-4, 3-1) entered the day ranked in the 300s in Division I in 3-point accuracy and went 7 of 30 (23.3%) against the Aztecs.

Tyson Degenhart, the Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year, didn’t make a basket until midway through the second half as the Aztecs aggressively double-teamed him. He finished with nine points, half his team-leading average, and all but two came at the line.

For SDSU (9-3, 2-1), Miles Byrd had a career-high 22 points, 14 in the first half. Freshman Taj DeGourville added a career-high 13, including several key baskets late in the second half.

The big stat: a 39-29 SDSU advantage on the boards and 21-9 in second-chance points off offensive boards.

For a team that didn’t arrive at its hotel until close to 1 a.m. Saturday because of commercial flight delays, didn’t have a morning shootaround because of the afternoon CBS tip and then proceeded to turn it over on its first two possessions, the Aztecs acquitted themselves well as the half wore on.

They turned an 18-12 Broncos lead into a 23-22 advantage thanks to eight straight points by Byrd and BJ Davis’ first basket of the game. That brought a timeout from Boise State coach Leon Rice to settle down his team.

But SDSU has had trouble all season late in the first half, and it did again Saturday. It made just one basket — a tip-dunk by Demarshay Johnson Jr. off a Byrd miss — over the final 6 1/2 minutes of the half and a four-point margin shrank to one by intermission.

Johnson, a 6-foot-10 forward in his fourth year in the program, was in the rotation because Pharaoh Compton, the Mountain West preseason Freshman of the Year, was not. Compton rolled an ankle during practice Monday and, while making enough progress to gingerly go through the layup line Saturday, wasn’t healed enough to play.

Compton at times has been SDSU’s best big man, and his forward compatriots didn’t fill the void in the first half. Jared Coleman-Jones, Magoon Gwath, Miles Heide and Johnson were a combined 3-of-11 shooting with five turnovers and eight fouls.

The Aztecs hung around, though, with their trademark defense, holding Degenhart to five points in the opening 20 minutes — all on free throws after going 0-of-4 shooting. Alvaro Cardenas and O’Mar Sanley, their third- and fourth-leading scorers, were scoreless.

The Aztecs took their first lead with 7:19 left in the first half and never relinquished it.

Notable

The Aztecs headed to the airport after Saturday’s game for a two-leg evening trip on Southwest Airlines that was delayed. They were hoping to make their connection in Phoenix … ExtraMile Arena was technically sold out, although there were empty seats in the student section with the spring semester not yet started … The officiating crew included Mike Littlewood, the BYU alum and former BYU baseball coach who T-ed up Dutcher in late-season loss at UNLV last season and caught the ire of Aztecs fans for calls in several other games … For the second straight game, Boise State didn’t start all-conference forward O’Mar Stanley and went with 7-foot Arizona transfer Dylan Anderson instead … Johnson made a free throw in the first half, his first in three seasons.