![San Diego State guard Miles Byrd goes up for a shot against San Jose State center Robert Vaihola during their game at Viejas Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
San Diego State guard Miles Byrd goes up for a shot against San Jose State center Robert Vaihola during their game at Viejas Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SUT-L-azhoop-0129-030.jpg?w=525)
Maybe they can set off the fire sprinklers in Viejas Arena and flood the floor. Or uncover some obscure earthquake building code it has violated. Or find black mold in the walls or asbestos in the ceiling.
Something, anything, to prevent the San Diego State men’s basketball team from playing any more games here this season. Just play ’em all on the road.
Or if that’s not possible, equip every seat with its own defibrillator.
The youthful Aztecs didn’t just play with fire Tuesday night, they danced on the rim of a volcano – trailing by 21 points in the first half and by 16 inside 13 minutes to go before salvaging a wild, crazy, insane, absolutely bonkers 71-68 victory against San Jose State.
The last time the Spartans beat the Aztecs in San Diego? Back in 1997, when they played home games at the Sports Arena.
The last time the Aztecs lost at home against a team ranked outside the top 150 in the Kenpom metric (the Spartans are 177th)? Back in 2017, against a Cal team rated 244th.
It would have been a Quad 4 loss, which is generally death on an NCAA Tournament resume for a bubble team. But it wasn’t, and the Aztecs (14-5, 7-3) live to see another day.
“I’ve always said this is a gritty team,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “They’ve got a lot of grit about them. They had it again tonight, in large part due to how they played, in large part due to this environment we have here, which is second to none.
“You get 21 down in some buildings, you’re going to get booed. They don’t boo us. They hang in there with us. They know these are young kids, playing their hearts out, and they make mistakes.”
![San Diego State guard BJ Davis goes up for a shot against San Jose State guard Latrell Davis during their game at Viejas Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SUT-L-azhoop-0129-023.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
They escaped at 3-18 Air Force a week go with Wayne McKinney II’s buzzer-beating layup in overtime. Now they overcome the second-largest deficit in a victory since at least 1996-97, which is how far SDSU’s records go back for these sorts of statistics. The largest was 22 down against Green Bay on Nov. 20, 2010, but that team was loaded with seniors and a sophomore named Kawhi Leonard.
This team is new and young and prone to mental lapses, especially, for some unknown reason, at home, where they have already lost three times this season after losing just six in the previous five seasons combined.
“After being here for three years, I know what Viejas is like,” redshirt sophomore Miles Byrd said. “You’re not supposed to lose in Viejas. It’s been a stress to us, multiple times. We’re not allowed to drop one more in here this year. We already lost three here this year. Three is definitely way too much.
“We’re going to try to value Viejas as much as possible. … We just have to clean up and play a more complete game at home.”
![San Diego State forward Pharaoh Compton and guard Nick Boyd celebrate with guard Miles Byrd, center, during their game against San Jose State at Viejas Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SUT-L-azhoop-0129-026.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
Dutcher likes to talk about the 3-pointer being basketball’s great equalizer, and it was Tuesday night. The Spartans made nine in the first half and 15 for the game, the most ever against SDSU in a Mountain West game.
Number of 2-point baskets: six.
The savior was 7-foot redshirt freshman Magoon Gwath, who had his second straight dominant game, following 15 points and 13 rebounds Saturday at Nevada with 24 points and seven rebounds in a career-high 34 minutes against the Spartans.
“I had a couple bad plays at the start of the game, and I got a little frustrated,” said Gwath, who was named Mountain West freshman of the week on Monday. “I was just thinking, ‘Next play, next play, next play. What can I do to help my team win?’
“My shots have been falling a little more in my workouts, so I have a little more confidence. I’m just trying to take the right ones, the ones I’m comfortable taking.”
![San Diego State forward Magoon Gwath shoots over San Jose State forward Sadaidriene Hall during their game at Viejas Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SUT-L-azhoop-0129-012.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
Byrd didn’t score until 12:38 left in the game but still finished with 13 points, including a deep 3 with 5:13 to go that gave SDSU its first lead since the opening minutes and an acrobatic reverse layup with a minute left to put the Aztecs up five.
A banked-in free throw by Miles Heide, starting for the injured Jared Coleman-Jones (out with a shoulder issue), made it six with 17.8 seconds left.
Over?
Uh, no. San Jose State’s Latrell Davis (23 points off the bench) made his fifth 3 to close to three, then Nick Boyd (11 points, nine rebounds, five assists) was fouled and missed the front end of a one-and-one with 6.6 seconds left. UCLA transfer Will McClendon got a decent look at a tying 3, but it missed and Heide corralled the rebound.
“What goes through my mind is lost opportunities,” said Spartans coach Tim Miles, whose team is 3-7 in the Mountain West, with six of the losses being one- or two-possession games late. “We missed two inside shots, there was a block/charge on a layup in transition, all in the last six minutes of the game where we needed a bucket to stabilize things. We didn’t get any of them.
“As much of what went right early went wrong late. … We’ve got to learn how to close these games out. We’re close, but we’re just not doing enough. If we could, we could be a pretty good team.”
![San Diego State guard Nick Boyd celebrates during their game against San Jose State at Viejas Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SUT-L-azhoop-0129-025.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
SDSU’s players and coaches talked about turning a corner after Saturday’s 69-50 win at Nevada’s Lawlor Events Center, a place where they had lost two straight and five of the last seven. “Pushed through a wall,” is how Dutcher put it.
Well, they pushed through a wall – only to find a sheer cliff on the other side.
The first half wasn’t their worst of the season. But the first 12 minutes certainly were.
They went from 14-10 down to 30-10 down. A minute later, it was 33-12. The visitors made four of their first seven attempts beyond the 3-point arc, and the Aztecs’ response was to dare them to take more.
So the Spartans did. By halftime they had were 9 of 16 (56.3%) behind the arc against a team allowing 7.2 per game and opponents to shoot a Mountain West-low 28.1%. They finished 15 of 31.
That was on defense. On offense, they had 10 turnovers in 11 minutes – on pace for a whooping 36 over 40 minutes. They dribbled off their legs (three or four times). They threw lobs to 7-footers like they were 6-footers. They had the ball stripped. Or they just lost it inexplicably.
They also fouled a 3-point shooter for, what, the 358th time this season?
San Jose State’s Davis missed a free throw. But wait. A lane violation on the Aztecs gave him another attempt, which he made.
“When they got ahead early, we tried to go too fast,” Dutcher said. “We tried to get 10 points in one possession, and that’s not going to happen. As we settled in, started running a little more offense, sharing the ball, moving it a little more, we found opportunities to score.”
![San Diego State guard Taj DeGourville passes against San Jose State center Robert Vaihola and guard Will McClendon during their game at Viejas Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SUT-L-azhoop-0129-006.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
The Aztecs did what they have all season and fought, but every time they got close, the Spartans responded with another 3.
They got within 10 late in the first half … only for 7-foot-2 Chol Marial, who had made one 3 all season, to calmly drain one from the left corner.
They opened the second half with a 5-0 run to cut the margin to seven … only for Donovan Yap Jr. and McClendon to make back-to-back 3s.
They got it back to 10 … only for Yap to make another.
Byrd made a 3 from the right corner to cut it to nine … only for Davis to respond with one 30 seconds later.
But finally the Spartans became only lukewarm instead of lava hot, and the Aztecs started make some of their own, specifically Byrd from the 310 area code.
The score for the first 27½ minutes: 57-41, Spartans.
The score over the final 12½: 30-11, Aztecs.
Byrd was asked his emotions when his 3 from the left wing nestled into the net for a 63-62 lead.
“Just relief,” he said.
Notable
The players get their first day off in 13 days on Wednesday. Then it’s back to practice Thursday and Friday ahead of Wyoming’s visit to Viejas Arena on Saturday at 5 p.m. … The last time SDSU won after trailing by 21 was the quarterfinals of the 2017 Mountain West tournament against UNLV … Dutcher said the shoulder injury to Coleman-Jones is the same one that sidelined him for a couple weeks during preseason practice in October. There’s a chance he could sit out against Wyoming as well, after which he’d have a full week before the next game (Feb. 8 at Colorado State) because of a midweek bye …
SDSU shot 51.9%, second best this season behind 52.9% against Cal Baptist … Josh Uduje, the Mountain West sixth man of the year at Utah State last season, had San Jose State’s first eight points and 16 in the first half. Defensive adjustments held him to just five points on 1 of 5 shooting in the second … SDSU had a 40-12 edge in points in the paint, with the Spartans so reliant on the 3 … The Aztecs outrebounded the smaller Spartans 33-25 and had a 12-1 advantage in second-chance points off offensive boards.