SAN DIEGO - After winning its season opener 66-53 over UC Riverside in Viejas Arena, the San Diego State men's basketball team heads out on the road for the first time to play the Brigham Young Cougars on Friday night at 7 p.m. MT in the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah.
OFF THE JUMP
After posting a season-opening victory for a ninth consecutive season, San Diego State opens a challenging stretch of its non-conference schedule with a road contest at long-time foe, Brigham Young.
The Aztecs and Cougars will meet for the 75th time on the hardwood, with the Cougars owning a 49-25 advantage. This is the fourth straight season the teams are playing, with the Aztecs winning in 2018 (in San Diego 90-81) and 2019 (in Provo, 76-71), while the Cougars won last season (62-72 in an empty Viejas Arena).
San Diego State is 4-29 lifetime at the Marriott Center, with victories coming in 1985, 1996, 2005 and 2019. In their last visit, the Aztecs snapped a 6-game losing streak at the venue with a 76-71 victory (Nov. 9, 2019). Jordan Schakel drained five three-point field goals en route to 19 points, Malachi Flynn added 17 points and five assists, while KJ Feagin had 12 points including a straightaway three-point field goal with under a minute to play in the win. It was the second of a school-record 26 consecutive victories to start the season.
Last season, No. 18 San Diego State overcame a 17-point second half deficit before falling to Brigham Young, 72-62. Matt Mitchell scored 26 of his career-high 35 points in the second half, including 11 points in a 14-0 run that resulted in the Aztecs tying the game.
Since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, San Diego State owns a 54-7 record (88.5 percent). That is the third best record in the nation, trailing only Gonzaga (63-3) and Baylor (54-6).
San Diego State has won five consecutive road games, tied for the seventh longest active road winning streak in the nation.
The Aztecs are 17-2 on the road since the start of the 2018-19 campaign, that is the second-best record in the nation during that span (Gonzaga, 17-1).
San Diego State opened its 101st season with a 66-53 victory over UC Riverside at Viejas Arena. The Aztecs used a 16-2 run in the first half to take control of the contest. Matt Bradley scored 12 points during the decisive run.
The Aztecs defense was in midseason form, limiting the Highlanders to 39.2 percent shooting from the field. The Aztecs improve to 41-2 the last 43 times they have held the opposition to 40 percent or less from the floor. SDSU recorded eight blocked shots in the game, with five players posting at least one blocked shot.
Senior Matt Bradley, a transfer from California, scored a game-high 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. Bradley produced the highest-scoring game in an Aztec debut since Jerome Habel scored 23 against California on Nov. 18, 2006. It was Bradley's 14th consecutive double-digit scoring game and his 23rd career game with at least 20 points.
Senior Nathan Mensah scored eight points (4-of-4 field goals), 10 rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots in the opener. Mensah is the first Aztec player to post those numbers in points, rebounds, assists and blocked shots since Yanni Wetzell did it against Nevada on Jan. 18, 2020. It is the third time Mensah has posted a game with at least 8-10-2-2. That is the most by an Aztec since Jamaal Franklin did it seven times from 2011-13.
Senior Trey Pulliam had 15 points and four rebounds. It was his ninth career double-digit scoring game, with the Aztecs posting a perfect 9-0 mark in those contests.
Once again this season San Diego State is unranked in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll. That is no problem for the Aztecs. SDSU has been unranked each of the last two seasons but nonetheless have spent 22 weeks in the polls since the start of the 2019-20 campaign, climbing as high as No. 4 in 2019-20 and to No. 16 in 2020-21. Each of the last two seasons the Aztecs have ended the season nationally ranked.
San Diego State prepped for the regular season with a 65-44 victory over Saint Katherine. The Aztec defense was in regular-season form, holding the opposition to 14 points in the first half and not allowing consecutive made field goals until the 49th and 50th attempts of the evening.
Brian Dutcher is in his fifth season as San Diego State's head coach and his 23rd season on the Aztec sidelines. In his four seasons as head coach, he has led the Aztecs to four conference titles, a 97-31 overall record and has already been named the national coach of the year and twice named Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year.