Nick Boyd leads Aztecs to big victory over Boise State, 64-47
Credit: Don De Mars/EVT Sports
The Aztecs used their home-court momentum to sweep Boise State for the first time since 2020-21
Steve Fisher Court – Viejas Arena – San Diego State University
The San Diego State Aztecs and Boise State Broncos met on Saturday night for a highly anticipated Mountain West battle. Nick Boyd shined bright as he led the Aztecs with 24 points in the win. SDSU improved to 17-6 and 10-4 in conference play. The Red & Black remain tied with Colorado State for 3rd in the Mountain West standings. Boise State fell to 17-8 and 9-5 in MW play.
“I just want to say what a great job to my coaching staff getting us ready for these games,” head coach Brian Dutcher said postgame. “The paperwork, the film work, the game plans, and then our kids execute the game plans. I have a really good coaching staff. I have players that are mentally tough.”
Dutcher continued on with his statement.
“We played a good first half up ten. Then, I just told them to play like they were down 17 at San Jose to start the second half. Play with desperation, play with panic, and we did that. We started the second half aggressively like we were trailing. Just really happy with the performance tonight to hold a really good offensive team like Boise to 47. Hats off to our defense. It was a good combination of driving to the basket, post touches, and then timely threes in order to maintain a lead.”
Magoon Gwath started the scoring on a put-back lay-in. Then, Nick Boyd began his big night with a steal and layup in transition. Andrew Meadow scored the first seven points for Boise State on 3-3 shooting. Boise State started the game hot and quickly went up 9-4.
After a scoring drought north of three minutes from both sides, Gwath tied the game at 10 apiece with a floater in the paint. Then, moments later, Boyd nailed a triple to give SDSU the lead once again.
Viejas Arena, wearing all black, was buzzing.
The Aztecs had a hard time finding offense from anyone other than Gwath and Boyd. Those two scored 17 of the first 19 points, and Wayne McKinney III had the only other bucket. Luckily for the Aztecs, their defense stepped up and forced the Broncos to commit a ton of turnovers early on. Boise State had eight turnovers in the first 16 minutes and shot just 35% from the field.
Tyson Degenhart started to get going for the Blue & Orange as he scored seven points and was 3-4 from the free-throw line. The Aztecs were playing very tight on him and he started the game 2-6 from the floor. Degenhart ended with 17 points on 6-16 shooting and 0-5 from deep. Meadow did not score a single point again the rest of the game after scoring the first seven for his team early on.
SDSU had a huge stretch toward the end of the half. Jared Coleman-Jones had a huge poster dunk on Dylan Anderson. He missed the free throw after being fouled, and then Boyd hit a triple to put them up 26-18.
Spin move, reverse dunk, posterized!
Consider this Jared Coleman-Jones’ submission to enter the Dunk Contest! @Aztec_MBB pic.twitter.com/1ag99gdsqb
— CBS Sports College Basketball
(@CBSSportsCBB) February 16, 2025
Gwath followed up with an emphatic block on Degenhart, and the Aztecs regained possession. The 7-footer almost hit his head on the backboard he jumped so high.
Magoon Gwath chase down SWATTAGE!
@Aztec_MBB pic.twitter.com/SfoeZjDYjo
— CBS Sports College Basketball
The Aztecs ended the half very well with an 11-0 run and extended their lead to 10 at the break. The Broncos failed to score a point in the final 5:15 of the half. Boyd kept putting pressure on their defense and reached 16 first-half points.
BJ Davis and Miles Byrd each started the second half with a three-pointer, and SDSU’s lead extended back to 11. Then, Boyd scored again in the paint, followed by a Davis steal for a lay-in. The Aztecs scored 10 points in three and a half minutes. Byrd and Davis had their first points of the game and it came at the right time.
SDSU led 38-23 with 16:35 remaining in the game.
The Aztecs, led by an incredibly loud crowd, started to pull away from the Broncos midway through the second half. Wayne McKinney III nailed a triple to put the team up 23 points. What that basket, he eclipsed 1,000 career points. You could hardly hear a thing. It was so loud at Viejas Arena.
Just when things were going great, the Broncos quickly responded with a 12-0 run. They trailed by just 11 points when the game almost looked over. Gwath ended their run with a lay-in right before the shot-clock violation.
Then, while being guarded by Degenhart, Boyd slipped to the basket for two points with Degenhart all over him.
That’s a 20 piece for @NicholaswBoyd!
@CBSSportsCBB pic.twitter.com/DLgmZUw6XU
— San Diego State Men’s Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) February 16, 2025
He extended the lead to 16, and then Alvaro Gardenas immediately had an offensive foul. SDSU thought they had momentum back. However, Boise then scored on back-to-back possessions to cut their deficit to 12.
Boise State had a chance to cut their deficit to under 10 points, but Gwath sent the shot back for his 5th block of the game.
The Broncos did not quit, but they ran out of time. SDSU held on for the massive win.
Boyd was asked postgame on what helped separate from Boise State.
“I think it was just our energy,” he said. “We just kept trying to gain the momentum and focusing on starting out the right way with a lot of energy and being tough. We just had to focus on winning, and when you think like that, you play hard.”
The next game for the Aztecs will be this Tuesday night against Fresno State. The game is at 8:00 p.m. and can be seen on CBS Sports Network.
“Unfortunately, we don’t get to enjoy (the win) too long as we play Fresno on Tuesday,” Dutcher said. “We will practice tomorrow and get ready for a Fresno team that will zone us for 40 minutes. We haven’t seen 40 minutes of zone all year. We’ll be back to work tomorrow.”
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.