Any chance San Diego State had at an at-large bid has been squashed as Aztecs failed to show up at ExtraMile Arena.
The Boise State Broncos hosted the San Diego State Aztecs for senior night. The Broncos had all the energy, momentum, emotions, whatever you want to call it, the entire way through. BSU stormed out to a huge lead early on and maintained control, leading to a 9-point win.
The Aztecs now have no choice but to win the Mountain West Tournament next weekend to make it into the NCAA Tournament. SDSU is now 13-6 in conference play after starting 7-0. It’s a disappointing end to the regular season for the Aztecs, but they will have one more opportunity to finish on a high note against UNLV.
This contest was not an easy one to watch for Aztecs fans, as the score got ugly quickly.
It took the Aztecs 3:15 to score their first basket of the game as Miles Heide scored in transition. Boise State responded with its second triple of the game to take an 8-2 lead. The Broncos continued the season-long trend against the Aztecs’ defense right away. They began the contest 3-6 from three-point range as teams continue to see success shooting from beyond the arc against SDSU.
San Diego State saw a scoring drought reach over six minutes before BJ Davis ended it with a layup. The Broncos still led by 15 as they continued to hit shots at an above 50% rate. SDSU shot 21% through the first 11 minutes. The Aztecs already had a massive deficit to make up.
The offense looked lost. Nobody could get open, and the Boise State defenders didn’t really have to worry as the Aztecs were forced to drain the shot clock and take contested shots. If the Aztecs were to get going, Reese Dixon-Waters, Miles Byrd, and Magoon Gwath needed to step up and dominate. Only one of them showed up.
Just when things were looking terrible, SDSU stormed out to a 10-0 run and trailed 22-15 after Byrd swished home a deep ball. The Aztecs were taking much fewer attempts from beyond the arc, but started 3-6. San Diego State earned some much-needed momentum, but the Broncos maintained control. They scored on back-to-back-to-back possessions after they had a 4-minute scoring drought of their own.
With around six minutes to go in the first half, Byrd seemed to have injured his leg after a brutal missed dunk attempt on the fastbreak. Byrd stole the pass and had an opportunity to score, but attempted a difficult poster, and the ball never made it above the rim. The result of that missed dunk is how he got injured. That is at least the third missed dunk of the season for the team leader.
According to the report from the CBSSN crew, Byrd went to the locker room for a short amount of time before returning to the bench.
Boise State’s offense found a flow and would lead 29-19 with 2:24 left in the half. Big man Drew Fielder had 10 points on 3-4 shooting while grabbing four rebounds to this point.
Despite trailing by seven at the break, the Aztecs finished the half much stronger than they started. They had only five points through eight minutes, but would end the half scoring 22 and making their last four in a row.
— San Diego State Men’s Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) March 4, 2026
The Broncos were 7-17 from deep at the half, while SDSU was only 3-7. That was a major difference between the two teams in the first half. The other was BSU’s 18-7 rebounding control, as they dominated the glass in the half.
Miles Byrd began the second half by sending an alley-oop lob to Magoon Gwath. After a minute and a half had gone by, Byrd left the court as he still felt the pain from his injury in the first half. BJ Davis checked into the game, hoping to get going offensively.
The Broncos didn’t miss a beat to start the second half. They scored a quick 12 points to increase their lead to 15 with 17 minutes to go in the game. San Diego State was quickly running out of time to come back in this game.
Before you had time to go to the bathroom and back, the Broncos’ lead jumped up to 21 as the Aztecs had no answer on that side of the floor.
Dixon-Waters did all he could to try to bring his team back. He converted a tough shot plus the foul and followed it up with his third deep ball of the game. He reached 18 points with just under eight minutes to go in the game. SDSU trailed by 11 points and needed a very strong finish in order to escape with a 21-point comeback win. The odds were not on the Aztecs’ side, but crazier moments have happened.
Elzie Harrington took a risky triple in transition to cut the deficit to nine. The freshman ended up scoring nine points and looked good in the paint. It’s unclear why he doesn’t insert himself more early in games. His ability to score the rock can really help this team, and it must become a factor in Las Vegas.
The Aztecs ran out of time. You have to admire what Dixon-Waters did on the court in the second half. He finished the game with 23 points on 8-14 shooting. His ability to hit clutch shots has been one of the few bright spots on the season.
Boise State deserves a ton of credit. Drew Fielder destroyed Heide, Gwath, Pharaoh Compton, and Tae Simmons in the paint tonight. He ended his monster game with 33 points and nine rebounds. Javan Buchanan had 17 of his own while Dylan Andrews and Andrew Meadow combined for 25. SDSU needed to contain Boise State’s Core-4, and they failed to do so.
SDSU will host UNLV for senior night on Friday. The Aztecs hope to end the season on a high note as they must finish strong to give them momentum for the MWC Tournament.
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.
