SAN JOSE -- Despite the No. 23 San Diego State men’s basketball team dealing with multiple days of travel issues, their game showed up when needed in a 71-50 win over the California Golden Bears at the San Jose Tip-Off on Saturday night.
Nick Boyd scored all of his game-high 17 points in the second half, while Miles Byrd and BJ Davis each added 12 points on a night where the Aztecs (8-2) did not step on the court at the SAP Center until around half an hour before the game’s scheduled start time.
“Obviously the way we came out of halftime, we were scorching hot,” said senior assistant coach David Velasquez on the radio post game show. “That was fun to watch… Nick Boyd got us going.”
SDSU used their defense to work their way into the game, forcing misses on 24 of the final 26 shots by Cal (7-5) in the first half to take a 25-16 lead at the break. Then the Scarlet and Black caught fire from downtown in the second half as they rained eight of their nine 3-pointers to pull away.
“I told them at halftime that that was the first time with this group this year that, even when our shots weren't falling, we guarded as good as we have all season,” said senior assistant coach David Velasquez on the radio post game show.
Byrd knocked down his second triple of the game with 44 seconds remaining in the first half, which set the table for Boyd and Davis to take off out of the break.
First it was the senior from New York popping and dropping 3’s on back to back possessions, then Davis made a pair, before Boyd struck for two more from beyond back-to-back. SDSU made six of their first ten second half field goals, and did not have more than two-straight misses until the game was out of reach with under three minutes to play.
Cal finished 14 of 55 from the field — going 5 of 24 from beyond the arc — as they scored a season-low for a unit that came into the contest averaging 81.5 points per game.
While “show and go” games are more of a regular occurrence in club ball games, the disruption to routine seemed to affect both teams in the early stages of a contest that had a haggard, gritty physicality to it all evening long.
The Golden Bears built out a lead as big as 10-2 with just over six minutes played, but both teams combined to shoot just 6 of 33 from the field in the first ten minutes.
So SDSU got scrappy, leading to a 26-6 advantage on second chance points as well as a 25-5 edge in points off turnovers. Rebounding played a major role as well, with the Scarlet and Black holding a 49-39 edge for the night and a 21-16 edge on the offensive glass.
Magoon Gwath led SDSU with 10 rebounds, six on offense, while Jared Coleman-Jones snatched six boards and had three offensive boards. The duo had 6 and 4 points each, but set the tone on the inside that included Gwath notching three blocks and Coleman Jones swatting one.
Both sides were unable to take a pregame shoot-around at the SAP Center.
The Aztecs needed to split up their traveling party due to their original flight from San Diego being cancelled and the group ultimately having to fly out of Ontario International Airport.
Cal arrived at the primarily-NHL venue on Saturday to find the rims were six inches too low as well as issues with the 3-point line.
It’s the largest-ever win that the Aztecs have posted over the Golden Bears, topping a 20-point win in Berkeley during the 2010-11 season.
“On a top ten non-conference strength of schedule in the country, I think any Coach would take 8-2 now,” Velasquez said. “It's not always been pretty and we had a lot of room to grow and we're going to continue to get better, but (I’m )really proud of this group.”
SDSU kicks off the rest of their Mountain West Conference slate against Utah State at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 28 at Viejas Arena.