SAN DIEGO – Redshirt freshman Magoon Gwath, who recorded his second career double double and averaged one over two games last week, is the Mountain West Freshman of the Week for the week ending on January 26. The announcement came from the league office in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Monday morning.
The forward from Euless, Texas, averaged 12.0 points and 10.0 rebounds as well as 2.0 blocks, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals in a pair of road victories last week: at Air Force and at Nevada to propel the Aztecs to a 4-1 league road record so far this season.
For the week, he shot 71.4 percent (10-of-14) from the floor, including 33.3 percent (1-of-3) from the bonus distance, and 60.0 percent (3-of-5) from the line.
In the Aztecs 69-50 win at Nevada on Saturday, Gwath was 7-of-7 from the field, including 1-of-1 from beyond the arc for game-high 15 points and a career and game-high 13 rebounds. He is the first Aztec since the 1997-98 season to record a double double shooting 100 percent from the floor since Roy Kruiswyk was (6-of-6) in a 13 point, 10 rebound double double against SMU on Jan. 15, 1998.
Gwath is the 12th player in Mountain West history to have double double with a perfect shooting night, minimum of seven field goal attempts, but if you include a successful 3-pointer in the stat line, he is the only player in league history to accomplish the feat.
Eight of his defensive boards limited the Wolf Pack to a single-shot possession and two of them led directly to four points going the other way. In addition, one of his four offensive rebounds led to two points for the Scarlet and Black.
His 3-pointer came with 6:58 to play in the first half and matched SDSU’s largest lead to that point, five points. Then at the 2:59 mark, with Nevada having cut the Aztec margin to 22-21, Gwath scored on a layup and then on a putback on his own offensive rebound, on successive possessions, to push the SDSU advantage back to five points. A block with 1:14 to play kept the margin at five points before San Diego State took a 28-21 lead into intermission.
With 11:52 to play, he grabbed a defensive rebound and on the other end scored on a monster dunk to push the Aztecs lead to 13 points, 39-26. A minute and a half later another Gwath dunk made the score 42-28 and he scored twice in the final 8:30 maintaining an 18-point advantage for the Aztecs and helping to secure the victory. The win snapped a mini-slump for SDSU at Lawlor Events Center where it had dropped its last two games. Gwath finished the night with 15 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks and one steal.
On Wednesday at Air Force, he was 3-of-7 from the field, 3-of-5 from the line with a team leading seven rebounds to go along with a career-high and game high three assists, two blocks and a steal in the team’s 77-76 overtime win.
His three offensive boards led directly to six points. Three of his four defensive rebounds limited the Falcons to a single shot possession. His three assists led to eight points and one of his two blocks resulted in three points the other way. In addition, he assisted on the bucket after the block which gave SDSU what would turn out to be the largest lead for either team, nine points.
This is Gwath’s first Freshman of the Week honor of his career and the fifth for an Aztec this season.
San Diego State returns to action on Tuesday, January 28 at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena when it takes on San Jose State at 7:40 p.m. PT. The game will be broadcast on FS1.
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