Halloween is over, but that didn’t stop the Tritons on giving San Diego State a scare to begin the 2024-25 season

The San Diego State Aztecs survived yet another close battle with their cross-town rivals from La Jolla. Last season, it took a buzzer-beater from Jaedon LeDee to defeat the Tritons at LionTree Arena. Fast forward less than a year, the Tritons led late in the game but collapsed as the crunch time approached and lost their late lead. The Aztecs are 1-0, but not after a contest that will teach them many lessons.

“Well, I like that a lot better than being 14 points down with nine minutes to go like we were last year,” head coach Brian Dutcher said. “We were holding on this year. I think (UCSD) got ahead by five. You know, it’s a young team playing together and it reminded me of an Air Force game. We’re trying to figure it out on the fly and that is a hard thing to do. I was fairly happy with what we did on the fly.”

Nick Boyd got the party started with the first bucket of the season and first in an Aztecs’ jersey. That score came off a blocked shot from Magoon Gwath on the other end of the floor. Gwath established his presence on the defensive end right away and finished with three blocks in the first half and two in the first four minutes of the contest.

UCSD responded with five straight points and at the same time, SDSU proceeded to miss their next nine shots, resulting in a brutal stretch to begin the game.

Byrd finally hit a three to get the Aztecs fans on their feet. He hit another a few possessions later to put SDSU on top 8-6.

A pair of early threes from @_mbyrd21

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— San Diego State Men’s Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) November 7, 2024

Pharaoh Compton’s first basket in an Aztec uniform came from a floater after he bullied the defender to the basket. SDSU was starting to find their groove offensively and led 10-6. However, SDSU could not capitalize on the early lead.

UCSD ended a 0-14 stretch with a three from Tyler McGhie to cut the lead back down to three points. McGhie was their top player on Wednesday night.

Coleman-Jones got fouled on a lay-up attempt and went to the line for the first two foul shots of the game. He nailed both as the Aztec fans started “wooing” for the first time this year as they typically do after made three-throw attempts.

On the next two possessions, JCJ nailed a three as the UCSD defender left him wide open. Seconds later, Miles Byrd slammed home a dunk after he stole the ball, which erupted the crowd. SDSU led 21-10 but would not pull away.

First Aztec field goal from Jared is immediately followed by a coast-to-coast play by @_mbyrd21

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— San Diego State Men’s Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) November 7, 2024

The Tritons kept battling and responded with a 10-0 run. The Aztecs were settling for contest jumpers, and they were not falling.

The half came to an end. SDSU led 24-22 in a very low-scoring affair. Boyd hit the first shot of the game, and also hit the final shot of the first half with a three to give SDSU the lead at the break.

Byrd led the team in all facets of the game. He finished the half with eight points, six rebounds, two steals, two blocks, and one assist.

UCSD played a zone for a majority of the game. Dutcher and his team expected them to show the zone at some point in the contest, but the Tritons stuck with it.

“We saw it, Dutcher said. “We worked on some of our zone offense where we just cut people in and out and we tried to wait for some of our man plays to cut through. (UCSD) did a good job with it but to our credit, we found a way to get downhill enough down the stretch.”

The first look on offense to begin the second half saw BJ Davis attempt a wide-open three, and he hit nothing but net. That seemed to be the theme for SDSU on offense. Look for the three-ball. Byrd and Boyd both followed Davis by swishing back-to-back three’s. They started 3-4 and hit all of the shots on the right wing.

Byrd continued to bring the electricity for the Aztecs. On what seemed to be a routine fast break for UCSD’s Chris Howell, Byrd came out of nowhere and blocked his dunk attempt at the rim. SDSU responded with a bucket but couldn’t pull away as the Tritons responded with yet another triple to cut the lead to just one point. Tritons’ McGhie nailed his fifth three of the game and was 5-9 in the contest from deep. His play kept his team in the game all the way to the end.

McGhie reached 21 points with around 10 minutes remaining. He and Byrd were the only two players on the court who could score consistently. However, the Aztecs were strong at keeping McGhie from scoring another basket.

“They made adjustments at halftime, and during that stretch in the second half, they were trying to get up big on McGhie. That is why we went small. If we didn’t switch, we had a guard on him. We didn’t want him facing up our bigs and having a 1-on-1 with our bigs. You can’t give him any air space. So, we made an adjustment, went small, and tried to keep a guard on him. Each coach was trying to make adjustments to win the game.”

The Tritons led 48-45 with 7:55 remaining in the game. This game was going to go down to the wire just as it did last year at LionTree Arena.

Byrd kept his foot on the gas pedal. On the defensive end, he was blocking shots and defending harder than anyone you have ever seen. On the other side of the court, he was putting the ball in the basket with jumpers, lay-ups, and dunks. Byrd reached a career-high 20 points with 5:26 remaining in the game. If it wasn’t for Byrd’s play tonight, the Aztecs would have been blown out of their own arena.

“It really just starts with our identity,” Byrd said postgame. “Every time we come in the gym, we know our identity is with defense and rebounding.”

Boyd then took a crucial charge with under 50 seconds remaining to give SDSU the ball up four. That might have been one of the plays of the game, as Davis finished a lay-up on the other end to go up two possessions.

That would be all she wrote. The Aztecs held on to take down the Tritons at home to begin the year.

Next up: they face Occidental on Tuesday, Nov 12 at 7 pm.

Chris Spiering

Chris is a graduate of the University of San Diego. He is the former Sports Editor for the USDVista newspaper. Chris has covered the San Diego Loyal, and now covers San Diego State Men’s Basketball. He also contributes regularly about the Padres. Chris is an athlete and is a huge fan of San Diego sports.