Led by the bench, SDSU bounces back from the tough Players Era Festival with a close win against Utah Valley

The San Diego State Aztecs hosted the Utah Valley Wolverines for the very first time in program history. After a rough Feast Week in Las Vegas, the Aztecs needed to bounce back with a solid performance at home in front of their home crowd. The Aztecs did not dominate, but they saw a lot of things go their way, including the bench scoring 59 of the 77 points.

Elzie Harrington remained in the starting lineup after starting his first game of the season against Baylor in Las Vegas. Outside of that, the remaining four remained in the starting five. Miles Byrd and Magoon Gwath were dealing with illnesses this week and before the game. They combined to score seven points in 35 combined minutes.

“We scored 77 and 59 off the bench,” Dutcher said postgame. “We had three double-digit scorers off the bench. Pharaoh (Compton), Tae (Simmons), and BJ (Davis). Byrd got two IVs before the game today and didn’t practice for two days as he was sick. He tried to come in and gut it out and play hard.”

“This is where the depth paid off for us. We had the depth to endure injuries and endure illness, and we still found a way to come out with a win. We held a team to 66 points … how about that? We put it in the game plan; we changed the ball-screen coverage for this game. For three days, we worked on it, and we did a good job of executing it. Our defense set the tone for their offense.”

Utah Valley’s Noah Taitz hit the first shot of the game on a wide-open triple. Harrington then got the first bucket to fall for the Aztecs after his team missed their first two shots from the field.

Gwath scored on back-to-back possessions early on with an easy lay-in. Utah Valley did not have any size on the floor, and Gwath took advantage of that early on. Although Jeremiah Oden replaced Gwath after just four minutes. As soon as Oden came into the game with some of the other bench players, the Aztecs’ offense started to come alive. BJ Davis also checked into the contest and scored 10 quick points on 3-3 shooting and 2-2 from beyond the arc. SDSU took a 19-10 lead by the second TV timeout.

SDSU extended their run to 7-0 with a slam from Pharaoh Compton, assisted by Taj DeGourville.

Watch your head!! @PharaohCompton #GoAztecs pic.twitter.com/uJ6HIZgpMu

— San Diego State Men’s Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) December 4, 2025

SDSU’s defense picked up the slack. They forced multiple 3-minute scoring droughts from the Wolverines. However, just as Utah Valley was in a drought, the Aztecs fell into multiple themselves. Midway through the first half, the Aztecs missed five shots in a row and couldn’t get a shot to drop in over four minutes. The freshman, Simmons, ended the scoring drought from the charity stripe.

The offense still couldn’t really find a rhythm. They never seemed to be in sync at all tonight. After extending the lead to 13 with around five minutes to go in the first half. Miles Heide was fouled on a rebound attempt and hit the ground hard. After review, the foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 foul. BJ Davis hit both free throws to go up 29-15. Heide left the game and did not return.

“Heide went down, got undercut on his back, so we couldn’t use him,” Dutcher said.

Wolverines’ Tyler Hendricks hit four crucial three-pointers to keep his team in the game. One of his shots was upgraded to a three-pointer after initially being ruled a two-pointer. Nobody on his team had more than five points by the end of the half.

SDSU’s second scoring drought of the half hurt them. They allowed the Wolverines to go on a 12-0 run to end the half as the Aztecs only led by one point, 33-32. After shooting 58% from the field early, the Aztecs ended the half at just 35%, 11 for 31 from the floor. UVU also had the 19-17 rebounding advantage. The Wolverines ended 7-16 from beyond the arc.

The Aztecs needed a dominant second half to feel good about this performance. While it didn’t come, they still managed to hold UVU to 41% from the floor in the second half.

Tae Simmons started for Heide to begin the second half. SDSU started by quickly going on an 8-0 run. Simmons was the backbone to start, as he filled in for Heide, scoring baskets and playing elite defense. His point total reached 10 points as he was proving to be a serious role player in Dutcher’s rotation.

The Wolverines ended the run with their 8th triple of the game. Just under 15 minutes remained. The Aztecs had a four-point lead that was too close for comfort.

Without Byrd and Gwath, and even Reese Dixon-Waters contributing to this point, Dutcher had to rely on his bench to close out the game.

The Aztecs saw their lead slowly increase. Simmons was everywhere for the Aztecs. He was grabbing rebounds and scoring in the paint and from the charity stripe. He reached 15 points and seven rebounds with just over 10 minutes remaining. The freshman was a major reason why the Aztecs were seeing the success coming their way.

Utah Valley would not go away, no matter how well the Aztecs were playing. Hendricks drilled a bank-three to cut the deficit from 10 to seven with around five minutes to go. This was going to be a close game down to the wire.

“They were very resilient,” Davis said postgame about Utah Valley. “They kind of stuck through it and made some big shots. They have good facilitators who were getting to the rim, so that was giving us some confusion. They stayed together and kept fighting.”

Utah Valley had great timing on the Aztecs’ passes, forcing turnovers and loose balls time and time again. They forced the Aztecs to commit multiple turnovers as the Aztecs were caught in a half-court trap.

“We just gotta be more organized,” Davis said. They jumped into the press, and we weren’t ready for it at the time and weren’t organized. We gotta tighten up.”

SDSU held on for the close win as the Wolverines gave the Aztecs a run for their money. This Utah Valley team had no business being in a game this close with San Diego State.

Tae Simmons spoke postgame about his performance tonight.

“I feel like… ball finds energy,” Simmons said. “I wanted it more than the other guy in front of me, so I was just going to go get it.”

Simmons was the player of the game for the Aztecs. He ended with 15 points and seven rebounds (four offensive) in just 13:39 minutes. Simmons also drew a team-high five fouls. Davis was incredible as well, dropping 18 points in the win and ending 8-8 from the free-throw line.

Up next for the Aztecs will be one week from today against Lamar.

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.