SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men’s basketball team had four players in double figures, including a career-high matching 10 points from forward Miles Heide, and defeated New Mexico, the team at the top of the Mountain West standings, 73-65 at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena on Tuesday night.
Joining Hiede, who also had seven boards, two assists, a steal and a block, were Nick Boyd (17 points, seven rebounds, and a team-high six assists), Miles Byrd (13 points, a team-high nine boards, three assists, three steals and a block), and Jared Coleman-Jones (12 points, three rebounds, three blocks and two assists).
Boyd became just the third Aztec since the 2013-14 season to record at least 17 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in the same game, joining Malachi Flynn (twice in the 2019-20 season) and Winston Shepard (Feb. 21, 2016 at San Jose State).
For the game San Diego State limited New Mexico (22-5, 14-3 MW) to 34.4 percent shooting from the floor. It is the second lowest field goal percentage shooting night of the season for the Lobos. The only worse shooting game they have endured was a 33.3 percent effort in a loss at Wyoming on January 7.
San Diego State (19-7, 12-5 MW), in its two games against New Mexico, has not allowed the Lobos to total more than Tuesday night’s 65 points. In its game earlier this year, a loss at The Pit on January 11, the Aztecs limited UNM to 62 points. In each of those contests, SDSU held New Mexico to 18 points below its season average.
The Aztecs led for 35:41, with New Mexico’s only lead, three points, coming 11:55 to play in the opening half. That lead was short lived after Heide and Pharaoh Compton, who finished the night with eight points, three rebounds, two blocks and two steals, scored on back-to-back possessions. Heide’s was a putback on an offensive board and Compton scored on a monster dunk with 10:36 on the clock.
San Diego State had its biggest lead of the half, nine points at 28-19 with 5:49 to play. But New Mexico closed the half with a 10-5 surge and the teams went to the break with SDSU up 33-29.
The Aztecs built their first double digit advantage on a Byrd dunk. BJ Davis stole the ball and fed Byrd who slammed it home for a 42-32 lead at the 16:14 mark, but New Mexico never went away. The Lobos kept the game to single digits most of the season half, with SDSU able to move to a double-digit lead again on a pair of Byrd free throws with 7:17 left on the clock. After a pair of successful Boyd shots from the charity stripe, San Diego State had the biggest lead of the game, 61-49 with 6:38 to go.
Three times, in the final 3:09, San Diego State led by 10 points before finishing off New Mexico 73-65.