What San Diego State head coach Brian Dutcher said after win vs. Nevada
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San Diego State (21-8, 14-6) wrapped up the regular season on Saturday, dominating Nevada 80-61 in front of a sold-out crowd at senior night inside Viejas Arena.
The Aztecs used a 15-0 first half run to take a 43-21 lead into the break. San Diego State led for more than 39 minutes of the game and utilized 25 bench points to wrap up the season sweep of the Wolfpack. The victory moved San Diego State into the four-seed for next week’s conference tournament in Las Vegas. After receiving a bye into the quarterfinal round, San Diego State will open the tournament on Thursday afternoon against five-seed Boise State.
Point guard Nick Boyd led the Aztecs with 18 points on Saturday while three other players finished in double figures. The Aztecs shot 55 percent from the field for the game and knocked down 10 of 26 three-point attempts.
Here’s everything San Diego State head coach Brian Dutcher said after the victory.
Opening statement:
“Good team victory tonight. We wanted to make sure we established our defensive pressure right away. They're a really good offensive team. They run good plays. Anything we could do to disrupt the timing a little bit, we wanted to try. We pressured the ball, so the passes weren't on time and on target. Every time down the floor, we did a good job. The first half created some turnovers that led to some fast break baskets, and we played a good offensive game. We shot over 50 percent from the field and had 19 assists. It was a good offensive performance, and then you couple that with good defense, and you come out of here with a nice team victory. Proud of our effort, proud of the way we bounced back again after a loss, and we didn’t dwell on it. We will move on to the next game and take a day off. We will spend a couple of days getting ready to meet Boise in Vegas for the third time. We know that will be a challenge, but we will come up with another game plan. We'll break down tape and we'll try to come up with a game plan we think will allow us to win this time when we face Boise, who's playing really good basketball right now.”
On Pharaoh Compton and Miles Heide stepping up:
“It means we have good young talent. Pharaoh stepped up today and Heide's been playing well since Magoon went down. He stepped into that role and has done a really good job scoring, rebounding and playing well. Pharaoh has gotten himself into foul trouble in some games. He finally got on the floor for some extended minutes tonight, made the most of them and did a really good job finishing around the basket.”
On how proud he is of the team:
“This team was gritty and tough all year. We played all year without a First Team All-Conference player in Reese [Waters]. The last five games we've been without Magoon, who could easily be the Freshman of the Year in this conference, and we’re playing really good basketball. We don't make excuses. We lace the shoes up, we tie them up tight and we go to work every day. I’m proud of the way the team handled adversity and found ways to win important basketball games all season. I am so proud of this group.”
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Bodie DeSilva has been covering sports in San Diego for more than a decade. He previously covered San Diego State athletics for Scout/Fox Sports.