What San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher and players said after heartbreaking loss at Grand Canyon

San Diego State was poised to slay its demons at Global Credit Union Arena, but Grand Canyon prevailed 70-69 after a controversial foul on Wednesday night, handing the Aztecs their first Mountain West loss of the season.

Miles Byrd appeared to block a shot, but Tae Simmons was whistled for a foul on Makiah Williams, who hit two free throws with 1.8 seconds left. That came moments after SDSU’s BJ Davis missed the front end of a one-and-one.

“I haven't seen the replay. Obviously, I argued that it wasn't a foul, but I couldn't see it.” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “I'm way down here at this end. The only one that saw it was the official and the guys under the basket. Anybody else was guessing. That's basketball. We didn't execute the game plan quite well enough. We missed a free throw, and that always is distracting. Then, we let it go down the slot instead of trying to send it to the middle. There’re things we can do, X’s and O’s wise, and there's things players can do to win games.”

It was the first loss in Mountain West play for SDSU (13-5, 7-1), which saw its seven-game winning streak end. The Aztecs continue to lead the MW because it is the only team with just one loss. SDSU fell to 0-3 at GCU, including a loss two seasons ago when it was ranked No. 25.

Here are the highlights of Dutcher and the players’ news conference:

Dutcher on the game overall

“I liked our grit and our fight. We weren't at our best due to Grand Canyon's good performance, but we still found a way to take a lead and had free throws to build the lead. We didn't make them, and they came down on the last play of the game, found a way to get a basket.”

Dutcher on Grand Canyon’s shooting

“They shot it. They made six 3-pointers in the first half. A couple of them, we didn't want to give but they made a couple of hard shots too. We fought our way to the end. I thought the loose balls were a big factor. Early in the second half, the ball was on the floor, bouncing around, and they seemed to get all of them. Then, when we made our comeback, the ball got deflected around, and we came out of the scrum with it, and then we got on the run and got some baskets. Those 50-50 balls meant a lot today.”

Dutcher on BJ Davis’ free throw shooting

“He was shooting our technicals. He's a good free throw shooter, but he missed a couple tonight, and that was unfortunate. Now, he's got to get over it, and next time he's there, make them. It can be a mental thing. I told them that they can be mad that we didn't win tonight, but we have to have an NBA mentality. We're playing on the road on Saturday, and we can't sit here and dwell on this. We have to fix what we can fix and move on to the next one.”

Junior guard Miles Byrd On how the team moves on to the UNLV game

“We’re taking a private jet home tonight. As soon as we get back to San Diego, it's a new opponent, new focus. This league has tough places to play and really good teams. GCU just got the better of us tonight. I want to give credit to everybody on the team. We held our heads high; we fought until the very end. A call that's 50-50 could go either way and it just wasn't our way tonight. We can't dwell on this, because you've seen it before. In this league, if you let losses like this stack, the next thing you know, you'll have two or three losses. We’re just trying to have an experienced, mature mindset about it.”

Byrd on the final play

“I mean, I don't know where the ref called the foul. I think he caught it early before he went up. Obviously, it was one on one, or maybe double bonus at that time. But yeah, I mean, you know, we missed the free throw. They got out pretty quick. Should have known two was going straight to the basket. Yeah. I mean, I thought, I thought I didn't touch him at all, so I hope the foul wasn't there. But you know, who's on tape, okay, yeah. I mean.”

Byrd on the final play of the game

“I don't know where the ref called the foul. I think he called it early before he went up. Obviously, it was one-and-one, or maybe double bonus at that time. We missed the free throw. They got out pretty quick. We should have known that number two was going straight to the basket. I didn't touch him at all, so I hoped the foul wasn't there. It's tough. We can't let the refs decide the game at the end of the game, simple as that. Tonight, we let the refs decide the game at the end of the game. We had chances to put them away. I didn't play as well as I wanted to. If I played a little bit better, I think our team has a much better chance to win.”

Byrd on Grand Canyon’s hot shooting

“I don't know what it's like lining up across from San Diego State, but from being on San Diego State, I know that teams give us their best shot. They have a great home atmosphere too. They were in here rocking, standing behind their team. It's tough, I think we scouted well. We executed the scout like we wanted to. Sometimes, you run into a night where a team's just making a lot of shots, and you’ve got to live with it.”