Aztecs pushed in 73-57 win vs Idaho State

This was no day at the Beach.

Five days after blitzing Long Beach State by 32 points, San Diego State hosted an Idaho State team that was comparably mediocre in the computer metrics and won 73-57.

The difference in the rare Sunday afternoon game: The Aztecs had to work for it.

Winning by six points fewer than the computer projection cost them six spots in the Kenpom metric, from No. 25 to 31. But coach Brian Dutcher will gladly take a metrics hit in exchange for the game film and the second-half minutes under relative duress.

“It’s what you want in a (nonconference) game,” Dutcher said. “You want to be exposed in some things that you have to get better at, and they exposed us on some things.”

The Bengals trimmed a 22-point deficit to 12 midway through the second half, compelling Dutcher, who is famously stingy with them, to call timeout to prevent further erosion. His team responded with a quick turnover but eventually settled down and rode another tenacious defensive effort – and three straight Pharaoh Compton dunks – to get him his 200th career victory as head coach.

The game matched a pair of coaches who have led teams to national championship games, Dutcher in 2023 and Idaho State’s Ryan Looney with Division II Point Loma Nazarene in 2019.

“Obviously, I lived here in San Diego, coached at Point Loma,” Looney said. “Obviously, got to follow their program for quite a long time. To me, this is probably one of their better teams, and it’s probably because of the depth that they have.”

That was on full display, with 10 different players scoring while shooting 59.2%, their best in 120 games since 62.5% against Air Force in February 2022.

Compton had 14 points on 7-of-7 shooting – four of which were dunks and another a layup off a lob – in just 11 minutes on an afternoon of constant foul trouble. He had two early in the first half, then fouled out with 1:59 to go after an overzealous celebration on a dunk resulted in a technical, which counts as a personal foul.

“They said I was taunting, that I was screaming in the opponent’s face,” Compton said, turning to teammate Reese Dixon-Waters in the postgame interview session. “What did you think?”

Dixon-Waters: “I mean, I liked (the dunk). I wish you didn’t get a tech, though.”

Dixon-Waters played his first official game since missing all of last season with a foot injury and the Long Beach State opener with a corneal abrasion in his eye. He had five points in SDSU’s first three possessions and finished with 15 on 6-of-8 shooting to go with six rebounds, two assists and two steals in 31 minutes.

He still doesn’t know how the corneal abrasion developed the night before the Long Beach State game, just that he never wants to experience that again.

“I would like to say I have a high pain tolerance, and I had to call the ambulance,” said Dixon-Waters, who wore goggles in practice but was cleared to play in contact lenses Sunday after antibiotic drops worked their magic. “You can’t close your eye. When you close it, it hurts. When you open it, it hurts. So you’ve just got to deal with it. It’s what kind of pain do you want to deal with. It’s good now.”

Miles Byrd had the day’s craziest stat line: four points, six assists and six steals. That makes him the first Aztec since 1996-97 to record at least six steals and six assists against a Division I opponent. (The only other player to do it, Matt Watts, came against then-NAIA Vanguard in 1998.)

Magoon Gwath suited up in his No. 0 jersey and warmed up before both halves. He also did that before both exhibitions and the season opener, but there was a difference this time: He wasn’t listed as a “scratch” on the starting lineup sheet.

He was available. He just wasn’t used, Dutcher not wanting to throw him out only three days (and two practices) after gaining clearance for full contact. Now the Aztecs have nine days before their next game, Nov. 18 here against Troy.

Dutcher, though, had to be tempted midway through the first half, after Compton and fellow big Miles Heide each got two fouls. Instead, he turned to 7-foot-1 redshirt freshman Thokbor Majak.

Then Majak got two fouls, and Dutcher went small – first with 6-8 Jeremiah Oden (13 points) at the 5 and then 6-6 freshman Tae Simmons against a Bengals team that likes to enter the ball into the low block and deter the double team by spreading shooters across the 3-point line.

That merely cranked up the defensive intensity with more agile personnel, and the fatigued Bengals began to show signs of cracking. A 13-4 run to close the half included a 3 by freshman Elzie Harrington (eight points, three assists) followed by a no-look pass from Harrington to Simmons for a dunk.

The onslaught continued in the second half, when Byrd had – yes, as insane as this sounds – three steals in 38 seconds and four in 2:11.

The lead grew to 22, and the game began to resemble SDSU’s last two, a 33-point exhibition win against USD and 32-pointer against Long Beach State.

Until it didn’t. Bengals forward Connor Hollenbeck (17 points) freed himself for three open 3s, and the margin shrank to 12.

“This will be the best atmosphere that we’ll play in all year here,” said Idaho State’s Looney, whose team won 71-68 at USD on Friday night before an announced crowd of 781. “I mean, it’s a test for our team. … We weren’t pretty on offense the whole entire game, but, truthfully, I think we did some good things and made it a little bit ugly for them, too.

“Obviously, we’ve watched all their film. Those (last) two opponents they’ve run out of the gym pretty quickly. So I was happy with the competitive spirit of our team.”

Notable

The officiating crew of Edwin Young, Steve McJunkins and Bryan Anslinger had never previously worked a game in Viejas Arena despite nearly 50 years of combined experience. Only Young had ever officiated an SDSU game, last season at Fresno State. They predominantly work mid-major Midwestern conferences but are part of the Big Ten-operated officiating consortium that supplies referees to the Mountain West.

• The Bengals shot 33.3% in the first half. They shot 57.1% in the second half but had as many baskets (12) as turnovers (12).

• UCSD transfer Quin Patterson had three points for Idaho State.

• Compton (five) and Heide (four) accounted for nine of SDSU’s 19 fouls.

• The Aztecs had a 30-12 edge in points off turnovers and 40-22 on points in the paint.