Viejas Arena – San Diego State University

 SDSU falls to 2-1 on the season after losing to Troy at home for a rare non-conference loss

The San Diego State Aztecs hosted the Troy Trojans for a buy-game between two unfamiliar opponents. Star forward Magoon Gwath made his return to the floor on Tuesday night, but he came off the bench to begin. Jeremiah Oden remained the starter at the four, with Pharaoh Compton earning his first career start at the five. Taj DeGourville, Reese Dixon-Waters, and Miles Byrd remained in the starting five for Brian Dutcher’s squad.

“If you are a college basketball fan, you had to love that game. Unfortunately, I am not a college basketball fan, I’m a college coach,” head coach Brian Dutcher said postgame. “I am not very happy with the results. We can’t give up that many points. We knew they were dangerous. They got five guys that spread the floor and shoot the three. This was the first time all year we switched every ball screen and tried to keep guys out of the paint. They ended up driving on a lot of those switches and getting to the basket.”

“(Thomas) Dowd had 18 rebounds. That is a monster game for anybody.”

Troy started the game hitting their first two shots while SDSU began 0-3. Starting center, Theo Seng, drew a foul and nailed both free throws from the line to jump start the Trojans to a 7-0 advantage. Compton got the scoring started for the Aztecs with a tip-in layup; however, Troy kept the offense going with another score to make it 9-2.

Magoon Gwath checked into the game to a roar of “Goooon,” and immediately drew a foul. Gwath missed both free throw attempts. Troy then picked up their fourth team foul just three minutes into the contest.

Troy kept pushing early. They hit another triple to advance their lead to 14-2. SDSU once again could not begin the game the way they wanted.

“We had a rusty start to the game,” Dutcher said. “That first five-seven minutes, we struggled on both ends of the floor. And then we got into a bit of a rhythm.”

Gwath scored on an alley-oop slam to get the crowd going again. Another basket from Miles Heide closed the gap to 10. Gwath started 1-4 from the free-throw line, but then was fouled again on a three-point attempt. He then nailed all three of them to cut the deficit to six.

Right around halfway through the first half, the Aztecs started pressing full court and trapping at half court. This put the Trojans out of rhythm for a while as they went north of four minutes without a made FG.

Dixon-Waters drew a foul for the 8th team foul on Troy. He would miss the free throw, but SDSU was in the bonus the rest of the first half.

Oden, who remained a starter, made a bunch of plays toward the end of the first half. He drained a triple, stole a pass right after, and assisted on a three from BJ Davis to cut the deficit to just one point. All this happened in under 10 seconds.

Moments later, Davis tied the game from the charity stripe. SDSU finally started hitting their free shots, being in the double bonus. Tae Simmons checked into the contest, moving Gwath to the five. Davis then went 3-3 from the line after being fouled on a three-point attempt to put the Aztecs on top for the first time in the game. The Aztecs were 14-21 from the stripe to end the first half.

Troy regained the advantage quickly by scoring five points to go back up 38-36 with under a minute remaining in the half. Troy switched to a zone to end the half, but Gwath nailed a mid-range shot to tie the game.

The score was knotted up at 38 with 20 minutes to play. Victor Valdes led Troy with 11 points while Davis and Gwath both had eight for the Aztecs. The Aztecs needed to keep the offensive pressure going, not just their defensive pressure, but on the offensive side, to make sure that the Trojans kept fouling. That was a big advantage SDSU had in the first 20 minutes. Troy had three players in foul trouble, and they are a team that already plays their starters a ton of minutes. By the end of the game, the fouling was almost even.

It was a back-and-forth affair to begin the second half. Troy’s offense did not go away as they scored nine easy points on 3-4 shooting to begin. SDSU’s defense was nowhere to be found. The Aztecs also missed some easy shots in the paint.

Heide replaced Compton early in the second half after Compton picked up his third foul. Compton did not return to the game.

“Miles and (Compton) are in a battle every day in practice. Miles sprained an ankle, and so he missed two days of practice.” Despite that, Heide played 21 minutes, and Compton ended with just 10 minutes played.

Heide did a great job rebounding in this game, pulling down seven (five offensive) to this point; however, he missed some close shots at the rim. The Aztecs needed to convert on the easy shots, with the Trojans not going away in this contest.

Dixon-Waters and Byrd helped put the Aztecs back on top with back-to-back triples. Davis then continued his hot game with a finish plus the foul and converted to put his team up three points with just over 12 minutes to go. The Aztecs would not be in this game without Davis. However, Troy just would not go away. They retook the lead and forced the Aztecs to commit silly turnovers. Just when you thought SDSU would take control, the Trojans responded right back.

Scott Cross coached a brilliant game against the Aztecs. His team was moving the ball very well against this elite Aztecs’ defense. They did not commit a turnover until 10.5 minutes into the second half and had only seven total for the game at this point. Troy ended with only 13 turnovers.

Byrd hit a clutch three with under eight minutes to go to trim the deficit to just three. Right after that, the Trojans took off and dominated for a short span. They hit shot after shot, going 14-25 from the field during the majority of the second half. The Aztecs could not force a missed shot or even a turnover.

Troy played as well as you could play against the Aztecs at Viejas Arena.

The Aztecs did not quit and fought back all the way to the end. They responded down 12 points with around three minutes to go and forced overtime thanks to a clutch half-court heave from Byrd. He swished the shot to stun the fans.

SDSU and Troy would remain even after the first overtime, and then SDSU took a quick four-point lead in double overtime. However, up four, SDSU never took another shot with the lead. Troy ended the contest on top and took down the Aztecs by scoring 108 points.

Thomas Dowd scored 25 points and grabbed 18 rebounds for the Trojans in an incredible performance.

The Aztecs will now travel to Las Vegas for the Players Era Championship and will take on No. 7 Michigan, followed by Oregon.

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.