When San Diego State travels to play at Utah State in a nationally televised game on
Saturday, the team will do so having won nine of its last 10 games while sitting atop the
Mountain West standings. But the Aggies aren’t far behind.
The Aztecs (15-5, 9-1 MWC) blew out Colorado State 73-50 at home on Wednesday, bringing their January record to 8-1. The team’s only loss this month was a 70-69 defeat in Phoenix to conference rival Grand Canyon on Jan. 21.
The Aztecs are now officially two-thirds of the way through what will be their final season in the Mountain West; as of July 1, San Diego State is jumping over to the Pac-12 Conference, along with fellow MWC schools Boise State, Colorado State and Fresno State.
With 20 games behind them and 10 more to go in the regular season, San Diego State looks
like a possible conference champion and probable NCAA tournament selection.
SDSU was able to defeat Colorado State (12-9, 3-7 MWC) on Wednesday despite being
down two starters. Center Magoon Gwath has been out almost two weeks with a right hip injury and guard Elzie Harrington didn’t play due to lower leg pain.
Seven-footer Gwath has labored with a series of injuries this season, including a severe
knee injury dating back to last year that caused him to miss the first two games of this season.
He tweaked his hip during a Jan. 14 win at Wyoming, then re-aggravated it during a home victory against New Mexico three days later.
But the Aztecs didn’t need him or Harrington against the Rams. The team was led to victory by senior starting guard Reese Dixon-Waters and sophomore reserve forward Pharaoh Compton, who had 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Dixon-Waters made seven of nine shots from the field, including two-for-two from three-point range. Compton went six of seven from the field and was three for three from the free throw line. He also had a team high five rebounds.
“I’m really happy with both of them,” Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher said following the
Colorado State win.
“Every game, Reese is getting better,” the coach added. “He’s getting a good rhythm to his
game. Reese was super-efficient, and he was really good at the defensive end, as always.
“Then, Pharaoh comes off the bench and he’s always shooting at a high percentage,” Dutcher continued. “He’s always taking high-percentage shots. He makes that effort to play where
he’s also above the rim, dunking the ball and chasing down rebounds.”
In Saturday’s game, which airs at 10 am on CBS, SDSU will face a Utah State team that
trails the Aztecs in the conference standings by just one game and has more wins overall (17-3, 8-2 MWC). The Aggies are led by senior guard MJ Collins Jr., who’s averaging 19 points per game.
The status of Gwath and Harrington for Saturday’s game is still to be determined.
“We’ll see how long they’re both out for,” Dutcher said. “But that’s the beauty of this team. Our depth with Reese and Pharaoh is just a really good part of this team.”
The two teams play each other again Feb. 25 at Viejas Arena.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
