Low scoring, defensive heavy, grind it out pace. This is Aztecs Basketball.
San Diego State dominated Boise State on Saturday night 64-47 in an all important 2nd meeting between the two this season and now advance to 17-6 on the year and 10-4 in conference play.
Now I don’t know about you, maybe I’ve watched too much Aztecs basketball, but these kinds of games are just beautiful to me. My brain is conditioned to think that no team should score over 50 against SDSU.
Boise has been a thorn in the side to SDSU during the regular season lately. Winning this second game to sweep the season series is a real good statement for Coach Brian Dutcher’s program moving forward. Not to mention it gave us some real good trash talk to Bronco fans at Eureka on campus in the post game celebration.
33%.
That’s field goal percentage my Aztec brethren—Boise’s worst output of the season. The Aztecs suffocated the Broncos holding them well below their average of 47% shooting from the field. That was enough to end Boise’s 4 game win streak.
We all know the success to SDSU basketball starts and ends with defense. The Broncos big two of Degenhart and Cardenas were held in check by a suffocating Aztecs defense which put a lid on the basket all night long. This game was a perfect illustration on that building block of defense.
Did someone say block?
SDSU racked up 10, count ’em with me, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … okay 10. TEN blocks on the evening. The team came out and played physical. Jared Coleman-Jones and the Aztecs muscled up on Boise’s Tyson Degenhart—who did score 17 points—but he’s Tyson Degenhart so that’s a pretty good job on that cat.
But I digress, when we talk about blocks we all know who we’re talking about. The education of Magoon Gwath is here at SDSU and happening right before our eyes. Gwath’s 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 blocks was very very nice. The 7 big turnovers makes it not so good, otherwise we’re probably talking a much more beautiful stat line.
Making his presence known with his wingspan and defensive awareness is a game changer for the defense. Similar to having Nathan Mensah or Skylar Spencer in the paint and knowing that you have a swatter on the back end is such a luxury this Aztecs team has.
But this was a night where the entire team came with that hard nose mentality. They weren’t just relaxing knowing they could fall back and let Magoon clean things up. This was a total team defensive effort in switching on defenders and playing with intensity in doing so.
Let’s talk about Intensity.
Offensively to start the game was pretty competitive. I’m sure I am not alone in thinking midway through the first half, ‘Hey, at least we’re not down by 20 and need to somehow wake the team up to play’.
No this was a different vibe—a different energy than we’ve seen before. This team was focused and stayed locked in and the tone was set by point guard Nick Boyd.
A career high 24 points on 10-14 shooting and 6 rebounds is fantastic. Carrying over aggressive play from the victory over San Jose State, it was clear Boyd has harnessed this mentality and is thriving.
Play after play he was driving, slashing, attacking the paint on his way to an easy layup. Now we say easy because he makes it look that way. But make no mistake these are hard physical plays for a guard. Not every guy has the ability to get to the rim at will.
Boyd was taking the fight to interior of the Broncos defense and he was winning.
Everyone can see that both the Aztecs and the Broncos are not two of the better three point shooting teams in the Mountain West this season. On the night Boise shot a poor 3-18. The Aztecs not much better at 5-12. But when you put those 6 less attempts for the Aztecs under a microscope it helps to see Dutcher’s team played within themselves and did what has been working.
What does it all mean?
Congratulations to Wayne McKinney on his special night. McKinney’s 10 points and 4 rebounds were a much needed contribution. His aggressive play has been earning him more minutes and his 3 point shot in the second half illuminated his 1,000 point mark in his career. Truly a great achievement for the young baller out of Coronado High and USD transfer.
The Aztecs ended the first half on an 11-0 run that increased when carried over to 14 into the second half. They then extended their lead to 23. The Broncos made a run midway through the second half to bring it back within 11 points. But the defense once again put the clamps down and closed the thing out right.
The game was a very important win in both metrics for SDSU’s march madness hopes and for the conference standings. SDSU now sits tied with Colorado State for the 3rd spot and has the edge over the Rams when it comes to bracket making time in the conference tournament.
Utah State holds a two game advantage over the Aztecs for 2nd place. Not insurmountable but a very difficult task. Aztecs face off against the Aggies this coming Saturday on the road in Logan, Utah.
New Mexico is a much different story. The Lobos hold a commanding 3 game lead over the Aztecs and though a home game for SDSU between the two still remains asking UNM to lose twice before that game arrives just isn’t going to happen.
We’ll update soon as the Lobos and the Aggies are hours away from tip-off in a rare Sunday afternoon matchup of Mountain West teams.
Regardless it’s all before the Aztecs to position themselves favorably in the nation’s eye for the NCAA’s and to gain ground for that #3 or #2 spot in the conference tournament. Just got to stay locked in and play within themselves.
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