BOISE, Idaho — Brian Dutcher has called a lot of timeouts in his eight seasons as San Diego State’s head coach. None might be better than with 6:43 left Saturday afternoon at Boise State.
The score was tied, but during the break officials went to the video monitor to review a Broncos’ 3-point basket from a minute earlier and determined Alvaro Cardenas’ sneaker was on the line, making it a 2.
“For a guy who gets criticized for not using his timeouts, I think I took a pretty timely timeout,” Dutcher said. “It was a such a good timeout, by the time we came out (onto the floor), we had a one-point lead. They took a point off the board.”
It also stemmed a Boise State run and started one by the Aztecs, giving them an eight-point lead that they never relinquished in a 76-68 victory at soldout ExtraMile Arena before a CBS television audience that was both nervy and enormous.
Nervy, because a commercial flight delay meant a midnight arrival in Boise before an afternoon game.
Nervy, because freshman forward Pharoah Compton, their best big at times this season, was a late scratch with a sprained ankle from practice earlier in the week.
Nervy, because of what happened in their last game — a 67-66 loss at home against Utah State after leading by 18 in the first half and by seven with 90 seconds to go.
Nervy, because a 10-point margin inside a minute to go Saturday dwindled to five in a mere 11 seconds thanks to a turnover against the press and a flurry of clanked free throws (3 of 8 in the final 35 seconds).
Enormous, because they had lost three straight and six of seven at ExtraMile Arena.
Enormous, because the Broncos have finished first or second in the Mountain West the previous three seasons and were picked to win it again this year.
Enormous, because the Broncos were 6-0 at home this season by an average of 27.3 points.
Enormous, because it relieves the pressure with another daunting road assignment – in altitude at New Mexico – looming next Saturday.
“When you lose your conference home opener, you feel like you’re chasing already,” said Dutcher, whose team tumbled from No. 20 in the Associated Press top 25 all way to 10th among others receiving votes. “We chased down a road win. Had we beat Utah State, we would have come here and been like, ‘OK, we’re 2-0 and if we lose this, we can make up for it at our place.’ To make up for that home loss already was big for us.”
“Resilient,” said sophomore Miles Byrd, who had a career-high 22 points. “We wanted to come out here and show that we could bounce back. You know how it is in the Mountain West. You have to win your home games, and you have to at least steal a few road games.”
This was less smash-and-grab than driving a bulldozer through the shop window.
The Aztecs (9-3, 2-1) did what the Broncos usually do to them, winning the battle of the boards 39-29 and building a 21-9 edge on second-chance points off offensive rebounds. And this against a team that ranked 13th in the nation in average rebounding margin at plus-10 per game.
Said Boise State coach Leon Rice: “21-9 on second-chance points, as simple as that. They flipped the script on us, and that’s where the battle was won.”
They also did it before the shot went up, negating Tyson Degenhart, the Mountain West preseason player of the year, with an array of switches, hard hedges and double teams. Degenhart didn’t make his first basket until midway through the second half, and that turned out to be his only one.
He finished with nine points — half his team-leading average — and all but two came at the line.
Instead, the Aztecs took their chances on the perimeter against the Broncos, who ranked in the 300s nationally in 3-point accuracy at 31% and finished 7 of 30 (23.3%). Degenhart attempted only two shots inside the arc and was 0 of 5 beyond it.
By contrast, the Aztecs also made seven 3s but needed only 17 attempts.
“It’s the staple of their program,” Rice said. “They’re long and they’re shot blockers. … When you get open looks, you have to make them. We did a good job with that in the first half. We spread them out a little bit, and it’s a one-point game. Second half, there was a stretch where we got some pretty darn good looks and they didn’t go down, and they went down and scored. That created some separation.”
SDSU didn’t lead until seven minutes left in the first half, then never trailed again. Dutcher is known for rolling with the hot hand down the stretch and went with a unique mix of personnel: starters Nick Boyd, Magoon Gwath and Byrd plus reserves Taj DeGourville and Miles Heide (who on some nights are Nos. 8 and 9 in the rotation).
Heide had six points and five rebounds, and the Aztecs were plus-nine points in his 13 minutes on the floor (second best on the team behind Byrd’s plus-11). DeGourville, a true freshman, had the best game of his young career with 13 points and six rebounds, including several clutch baskets in crunch time.
Byrd’s previous career high was 20 in the season opener against UCSD. He had 14 in the first half Saturday on a variety of contested jumpers with defenders draped on him and would have finished with more had he not missed a breakaway dunk and four free throws (by a 93.8% shooter).
“I’ve never won at Boise, so there was a little extra emphasis on what I’m doing out there,” he said. “My shot was just falling. It was one of those days. You have to love it, you have to rock with it.”
Was he worried when Dutcher called timeout with 6:43 left?
He shook his head and smiled.
“It was 58-58, it was super loud in here,” Byrd said. “We came to the timeout and were like, ‘Calm down, we’ve got it.’ It’s almost like sometimes the coaches are more worried about what we have going on than we are.”
Notable
The Aztecs headed to the airport after the game for a two-leg trip home on Southwest Airlines through Phoenix.
• ExtraMile Arena was technically sold out, although there were empty seats in the student section with the spring semester not yet started.
• Boise State was led by backup guard Chris Lockett with 16 points (3 of 8 on 3s). San Jose State transfer guard Alvaro Cardenas had nine points, all in the second half, but shot 3 of 12.
• For the second straight game, Boise State didn’t start all-conference forward O’Mar Stanley (four points, five rebounds) and went with 7-foot Arizona transfer Dylan Anderson (no points or rebounds) instead.
• With Compton sidelined, Demarshay Johnson Jr. got minutes in the first half and made a free throw, his first in three seasons.
• The officiating crew included Mike Littlewood, the BYU alum and former BYU baseball coach who T-ed up Dutcher in a late-season loss at UNLV last season and caught the ire of Aztecs fans for calls in several other games.
