B.J. Davis, Aztecs rally to beat San Jose State following ‘Christmas reset’

SAN JOSE – After twice blowing double-digit leads, after continually throwing away post entry passes against the considerably smaller Spartans, after giving up six points in nine seconds, after missing four front ends of one-and-one free throws, it became eminently apparent that this wasn’t going to be the game when San Diego State’s underachieving basketball team magically snapped out of its season-long funk and blew out an inferior, injury-plagued opponent.

This was about survival.

This was about avoiding embarrassment, about averting disaster.

The Aztecs did, riding a late surge from super sub BJ Davis to prevail 81-68 at San Jose State and move to 2-0 in the Mountain West with underwhelming wins against teams picked to finish near the bottom of the 12-team conference but wins nonetheless.

“Onward,” coach Brian Dutcher said, shaking his head.

It was the fourth nervy game against the Spartans in three years. Both last year required overcoming huge deficits to win by three. Two years ago, the Aztecs needed a late block to preserve another three-point victory.

“I saw this the last two years,” Davis said of the small crowds at the Provident Credit Union Event Center. “I kind of knew coming in it was going to come down to the wire. This is a tough place to play, a tough place to bring energy. We can’t pull energy from the crowd, so we have to bring it ourselves and it’s usually tough doing that.”

This was a two-point game with five minutes to go, before Davis, quiet for the first 29 minutes, reasoned that “somebody had to step up and provide that spark.”

He had 15 of his 18 points over the closing 11 minutes, and when he wasn’t scoring he was grabbing rebounds, or slowing Spartans 6-foot guard Colby Garland when no one else could, or finding Reese Dixon-Waters in the corner for a dagger 3.

On paper, this was a game the Aztecs (8-4) should have won easily. San Jose State entered the night 5-0 against Quad 4 or non-Division I opponents, and 0-7 against everybody else.

And the Spartans were missing one starter and two rotation pieces to injury. Then starting forward Yaphet Moundi, who leads the Mountain West with five double-doubles, limped off in the first half and didn’t return.

“Those in-game injuries really hurt you because you haven’t practiced without them,” San Jose State coach Tim Miles said. “We need all those guys. … You don’t want to make excuses, but that ‘s a huge deal for us, four guys who started games for us not playing. There are a lot of teams that aren’t going to overcome that.”

That it was as close as it was for as long as it was represented something of a statistical anomaly. The Aztecs outshot the hosts 52.8% to 34.8%, held them to 6 of 26 behind the 3-point arc, were the beneficiaries of 18 turnovers, had a 24-4 advantage in fast-break points and a 42-2 edge in bench scoring.

The Spartans compensated by drawing switches on ball screens, then attacking SDSU’s bigs with drives, pump faking and drawing fouls – over and over and over. Garland, now the Mountain West’s scoring leader at 20.4 points, equaled his career high with 30 despite shooting just 2 of 11 on 3s and having five turnovers because he was 14 of 14 at the line. After not attempting a free throw for the opening 12 minutes, the Spartans made 16 straight and finished 22 of 24.

Miles Byrd and Pharaoh Compton each had 11 points for SDSU. Dixon-Waters had 10, six coming on 3s in the final 70 seconds.

Magoon Gwath, after showing signs of progress recently, had a frustrating night against a team with a starting lineup that went 6-0, 6-1, 6-3, 6-7 and 6-8. The 7-footer finished with eight points, four rebounds and two blocks but had three turnovers, was 2 of 5 at the line and played only 16 minutes after being benched for the final 11.

“He just couldn’t get into the rhythm of the game,” Dutcher said.

The hope was that what Byrd called a “Christmas reset” might bring some consistency and mojo to a flailing team. Didn’t happen.

A 10-0 run helped build an early 12-point lead … only for them to surrender a pair of 3-pointers in the space of, yes, nine seconds. Garland made one, and SDSU’s Sean Newman Jr. was whistled for a push on the rebound as the ball was in the air. That gave the Spartans possession, and Jermaine Washington quickly made a 3 from the opposite wing.

The Aztecs chugged away and got the margin back to 11 … only to surrender a 9-0 run that included a momentum-sapping technical foul on Gwath after, yes, he was fouled and about to head to the line but tossed the ball at an opposing player. Gwath missed the front end of the one-and-one, Garland made both technical free throws and the Spartans added two more on the ensuing possessions.

The Aztecs made their first seven free throws … then closed the first half 2 of their next 7 that was essentially 2 of 10 when you consider missing the front ends of one-and-ones three times.

The Aztecs looked like they would go into halftime up six … only for Douglas Langford, starting for injured Sadrique NgaNga, to fly in for a tip at the buzzer when no one blocked him out.

But at least that was better than last year, when they trailed by 17 at intermission and it took an impassioned speech from USD transfer Wayne McKinney III (and his late offensive rebound) to avert disaster.

Or better than the last time a San Diego team played on this floor, when the USD Toreros trailed 42-14 here Dec. 5.

The problem: There was no 17-0 run to open the second half this year.

The Aztecs opened the second half with yet another turnover trying to get it inside, Washington made a 3 and it was a one-point game.

The Spartans finally went ahead 53-51 with 12:56 left when they missed a 3 but little-used Marcus Overstreet – playing because of injuries and foul trouble – punked Gwath for an offensive rebound and easy put-back.

From there, it was back and forth until Davis started slashing and gashing the Spartans’ press for layups. It also helped that the Spartans went eight minutes without a basket until a garbage-time layup with 26 seconds left.

“That’s Aztecs basketball,” Davis said. “That’s got to be our staple. If we play defense, the offense will come. Defense and rebounding, that will spark our offense. It always has. We just have to be focused on that more.”

Notable

Next up: Boise State at home on Saturday night (7 p.m., CBS Sports Network). The Broncos beat visiting New Mexico 62-53 on Saturday to even their conference record at 1-1 … This is the final regular-season meeting between the teams (San Jose State doesn’t come to Viejas Arena in the Mountain West’s unbalanced schedule) and might be for a while. The Aztecs move to the Pac-12 next year while the Spartans stay in the Mountain West … The crowd was evenly split between red and blue. The Aztecs have a strong Northern California representation. Miles Byrd and BJ Davis are from here, along with assistant coach Dave Velasquez and director of basketball operations Matt Soria … SDSU is now 22-1 against San Jose State in the Mountain West era, the lone coming here in 2017.