RENO, NEV. – Magoon Gwath was 7-of-7 from the field and finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds and Miles Byrd dished out nine assists as San Diego State earned a convincing 69-50 road win over the Nevada Wolf Pack at Lawlor Events Center on Saturday night.
The Aztecs (13-5, 6-3 Mountain West) improved to 14-4 against the Wolf Pack in the Brian Dutcher era (since 2017-18). SDSU climbs to 4-1 on the road this season and 7-2 away from Viejas Arena on the campaign.
Nevada, (11-9, 3-6 MW) which opened Mountain West play with four consecutive losses before rattling off three straight wins, drops its second contest in a row. The Wolf Pack will look to rebound at Boise State on Wednesday.
BJ Davis opened the game with a three-pointer and Jared Coleman-Jones made a layup to put the Aztecs up 5-0. The Wolf Pack responded with an 11-0 run and scored 13 of the next 15 points to go up 13-7 with just under 11 minutes remaining in the half. The run represented more points than the Aztecs would allow for the rest of the half combined. San Diego State battled back with a 13-0 run of its own including threes from Taj DeGourville, Kimo Ferrari and Gwath to take a 20-13 lead with six minutes to go in the half. Nevada rallied with eight of the next ten points to get within a point with three minutes left but back-to-back buckets from Gwath and a Davis layup as the half came to a close gave the Aztecs a 28-21 advantage heading into the locker room.
The SDSU defense locked down to begin the second half, not allowing a basket for the first 4:54 of the latter period. Byrd made his first three during that stretch as the Aztecs grew their lead to 11 with 11:30 to go. San Diego State put the pedal to the metal with a 13-3 run as another DeGourville three ballooned the lead to 21 points (52-31) with seven minutes left in the contest. DeGourville drained two more threes and Byrd added another of his own as Nevada was not able to shrink the deficit to lower than 16 points the rest of the way. Pharaoh Compton tacked on two dunks in the final 1:05 including one with five seconds remaining to put the exclamation point on San Diego State’s 69-50 victory.
In addition to Gwath (15 points, 13 rebounds) and Byrd (11 points, nine assists), DeGourville finished in double figures with 14 points thanks to a quartet of three-pointers. Nick Boyd tallied seven points and dished out six assists while not turning the ball over once.
Justin McBride (13 points), Kobe Sanders (12 points, eight rebounds) and Xavier DuSell (11 points) finished in double figures to lead the Wolf Pack.
San Diego State shot better from the field (48.2%-29.4%), from deep (36.0%-19.2%) and from the free throw line (75.0%-68.2%). SDSU had 21 assists to Nevada’s 11. The Aztecs scored more in the paint (36-12) and on fast breaks (10-2).
THE NOTE
Miles Byrd became the first Aztec since at least 1996-97 with nine assists, three steals and a block in a game.
THE NOTE II
Magoon Gwath became the first Aztec to have a double double with a perfect shooting night since Roy Kruiswyk was 6-of-6 from the floor and finished with 13 points and ten rebounds in an 80-78 loss to Southern Methodist on January 15, 1998.
SDSU returns to America’s Finest City for a pair of home games next week. The Aztecs will face San Jose State at 7:40 p.m. on Tuesday night and Wyoming at 5 p.m. next Saturday. Tuesday’s game is a redout with the first 5,000 fans receiving a replica of San Diego State’s red jersey, which the team will wear against the Spartans. It will be broadcast on FS1 and San Diego Sports 760. Saturday’s contest will be televised on CBS Sports Network with the radio call on San Diego Sports 760.