Reese Dixon-Waters and the Aztecs’ strong defense helped propel SDSU to a closer-than-expected win over Wyoming

Viejas Arena – San Diego State University

The San Diego State Aztecs are back home, ready for Round 2 against the Wyoming Cowboys. The Aztecs took down the Cowboys in Laramie three weeks back and wanted to complete the two-game sweep in front of their home fans.

The Scarlet & Black got the job done, but they left many opportunities and points on the board in this one. Winning comfortably in the Mountain West continues to be a difficult task.

“Well, a hard-fought home victory,” head coach Brian Dutcher said postgame. “Sundance (Wicks) has done a great job with that team. You just watch them play, and you see that they play hard for him all the time. There is no give-in with that team. Even when we had an 11-point win at the half, I knew the lead was not safe.”

“I thought we had an opportunity to really extend the lead in the second half. We did, and we were getting stop after stop, but we weren’t scoring at that same level to put it at 18-20. So, they hung around within range.”

Starters Magoon, Gwath, and Elzie Harrington missed the contest once again. Dutcher went with the same lineup against Colorado State and Utah State with BJ Davis at the one, alongside Miles Byrd, Reese Dixon-Waters, Jeremiah Oden, and Miles Heide. Wyoming was short-handed as well, with three bench players out.

The Aztecs started the game with a full-court press, even after the miss from Miles Byrd after tip-off. Despite the press, the Cowboys hit their first two shots of the game to jump out to a quick 5-0 lead. The Aztecs wanted to make sure they pressured Wyoming from start to finish. The press lasted most of the game, mostly coming after made shots.

Miles Heide scored the first point for SDSU after hitting 1-2 from the free-throw line. Moments later, Reese Dixon-Waters tied the game at 5-5 with a mid-ranger jumper from the right elbow.

Wyoming trapped the Aztecs in the half-court with their zone from time to time, but not every possession. San Diego State had the task of trying to beat the zone by finding the gaps in the defense. SDSU adjusted well when those moments came.

The Aztecs took a 12-9 lead after a sweet play from Sean Newman Jr. He passed up a wide-open corner triple to assist on an alley-oop to Pharaoh Compton. An offensive possession cannot look much prettier than that.

The Pokes followed by hitting their 2nd three-pointer of the game to tie the game at 12 with just over 12 minutes to go in the first half.

Pharaoh Compton started the game on fire, going 3-3 with a quick six points. Compton has proven to be a force in the paint, and teams have a very difficult job containing him. However, he picked up his second foul with over 10 minutes to go in the first half. Foul trouble has been his kryptonite, and he had to once again take a seat earlier than he had hoped. He did return at the end of the half for the final 1:50.

After Compton was taken out, the offenses struggled on both sides. Wyoming had multiple scoring droughts while the Aztecs couldn’t make a three-point shot. The deep balls were not a part of the game plan for SDSU. As for the Pokes, they started 2-10 from deep.

SDSU led 17-14 with 7:31 remaining in the first half. We were in for a low-scoring affair.

Jeremiah Oden entered the night with 995 career points. He nailed the first triple for SDSU to give him five points and 1,000 for his career. That deep ball gave his team a 20-19 advantage. It was great to see Oden accomplish the feat against his former team.

#1000 @JeremiahOden #GoAztecs pic.twitter.com/EV7fxnnTzY

— San Diego State Men’s Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) February 4, 2026

“It feels really good,” Oden said postgame about the milestone. “I was hoping that it would play out like that to get it tonight against Wyoming at home. It felt really good; it was like a full-circle moment for me. A lot of those dudes over there saw me score my first points, so it was probably cool for them too. It was a good moment.”

Oden and freshman Tae Simmons helped get the Aztecs’ offense going again, and they did so while being on the floor together. When the season started, not many predicted Oden and Simmons to share many minutes. Well, SDSU benefited from the senior and freshmen playing together. With Gwath out and Compton in foul trouble, it was necessary. The Aztecs went from trailing by two to leading by six thanks to an 8-0 run. 4:30 remained in the first half.

SDSU would take an 11-point lead to the locker room. However, the lead should’ve been much higher after missing eight free throws in the half. They ended 10-18, which is not good enough at all. Dixon-Waters led SDSU with eight points, while Oden added seven. Wyoming shot 32% from the floor and only 29% from beyond the arc.

The second half began with a huge offensive rebound by BJ Davis for an easy layup. Dixon-Waters attempted two quick three-pointers out of the gates, but both were off. Davis then went 1-2 from the line on the next possession, giving SDSU a ninth missed free-throw. Despite the plethora of misses, the Aztecs had their largest lead of the game at 14, 38-24.

SDSU kept pushing. Wyoming did not make its first shot of the second half until 15:25 remaining in the game. The defensive pressure from Dutcher’s squad was intense. They played some of the best defense all season.

It did not last the entire game as Wyoming cut SDSU’s 16-point lead down to seven quickly. They went on a 9-0 run in two minutes while SDSU had a scoring drought reach almost four minutes. There is not a game that goes by without a scoring drought for the Aztecs. Dutcher was not happy as he called a timeout to try to end the run.

Taj DeGourville then ended the run with a mid-range jumper. That was his only made bucket of the night. He ended 1-8 from the field.

The defense picked up again for SDSU. The Cowboys went on a massive FG drought that lasted five minutes as their only points came from the charity stripe. SDSU led by 13 with under seven minutes to go. Dixon-Waters was the offense for the Aztecs, attempting the deep ball and seeing his point total reach 20 points.

Reese from deep!

📺 @CBSSportsCBB pic.twitter.com/qNVjRrULgE

— San Diego State Men’s Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) February 4, 2026

Wyoming did not quit and ended up closing the game from 17 to only losing by nine. San Diego State did not take advantage of the weaker opponent, as they needed a double-digit win at home to improve the NET and KenPom rankings. That did not happen; however, the Aztecs held the Cowboys to only 63 points, which proves that SDSU’s strong defense is back.

RDW was the Player of the Game for the Aztecs. He ended with 23 points on 6-10 shooting. He was also 9-12 from the line as he forced eight fouls drawn. Dixon-Waters added two steals as well.

RDW spoke on his night and how he has scored in double figures in 12 straight games.

“It’s been getting easier because I have been taking higher-quality shots than I used to. Just playing with the flow of the game and still being aggressive. Practicing how I want to play as well has been helping me.”

The next time you will see the Aztecs play will be this Saturday night against Air Force.

“Now we go to Air Force, which is hard to play at,” Dutcher said postgame. “You don’t look at their record. They are an academy team. If we can get a win there, we will be in first place with a bye week. And that is what I want to have happen, in the worst way. So that we can get Magoon (Gwath) and Elzie (Harrington) both back, or one of them back, we can be at full strength for the stretch run.”

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.