What San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher and the players said after winning at Nevada

San Diego State fell behind early at Nevada on Tuesday night, but didn’t panic in a showdown of teams with winning records.

That approach paid off with a 73-68 win over the Wolf Pack in the Aztecs’ final trip to Reno before joining the Pac-12 next season.

“We were too stagnant offensively to start the game,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “We were playing defense on offense. We were on our heels. We started spreading them out, curling around, back cutting a little bit more to open the floor up. Once the floor opened up, we had a lot better success. Our fast break was really good tonight. It was a good performance offensively, shooting 52 percent and holding them to 22 percent in the second half.

“We need to take better care of the ball,” Dutcher added. “We had nine turnovers in the first half. That's why we were in the shape we were in. That's how we opened the game, and we only had four turnovers in the second half. We were shooting at a high percentage, and that's what it takes to win games.”

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

Dutcher on calling a timeout early

“We weren’t playing very well, so I wanted to get a timeout and not panic. I let them know to ‘Come on. We’ve got to move better. We’ve got to spread them and be more active.’ You're going to get off to slow starts. I told the team last week, if they were 21 down, I feel we could win. We were down 14-2 in the first half, but it was the first half. There's plenty of time in basketball. You’ve just got to get your rhythm and start playing better.”

Dutcher on the play for Magoon Gwath late in the second half

“We scored on it twice last year against them. It's a play that I run away from the opposition's bench. Their whole bench was up yelling, but when the play's going on, the guys at this end couldn’t hear it. Their coaches knew it was coming. Fortunately for us, their players didn't recognize the play, and we got Magoon a dunk out of the timeout, which is really important.”

Sophomore guard Taj DeGourville on going down by 12 points early in the game

“We say all the time as a team that we’ve got to stay composed. We stay resilient. Especially on the road, we’ve got to stick together so we knew it was going to be a long game. We had no doubt about that.”

DeGourville on what changed after falling behind

“Just being more aggressive, a little bit for myself. I just let it open up the game for the team in general, play with a faster pace. I was looking at the rim more. Sometimes I feel like I'm a little passive. Today, I just played a little more aggressively, and it opened up the game for me and my teammates.”

DeGourville on where the team is in the big picture

“We knew from the jump that we were going to be a good team. We had a rough patch, and every good team is going to have to get through a rough patch. That's what we're doing right now. We're going to keep on trying to string wins together.”