![\"Tyler](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SUT-L-azhoop-1017-006.jpg\")
Tyler Bilodeau #34 of UCLA and Miles Heide #40 of San Diego State vie for the rebound during an exhibition game at Viejas Arena on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nThe last time we saw these San Diego State Aztecs, they were getting their doors blown off by North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament\u2019s First Four in Dayton, Ohio, trailing by 40 and losing by 27.<\/p>\n
Picked up right where they left off.<\/p>\n
The score after 7\u00bd minutes of Friday night\u2019s preseason exhibition against No. 12 UCLA at Viejas Arena: Aztecs 0, Bruins 17.<\/p>\n
Coach Brian Dutcher said the mid-October test in front of fans, despite not counting in the standings or toward NCAA Tournament consideration, would reveal the \u201cgood, bad and in between\u201d about a team laced with lofty expectations, and it did:<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve got work to do, but there\u2019s a whole lot to work with.<\/p>\n
Final score: Bruins 67, Aztecs 60.<\/p>\n
The hosts missed their first nine shots and had 10 turnovers before Louisiana Tech transfer guard Sean Newman Jr., not known as a shooter, drained a 3-pointer from the left side with 12:15 left in the half. That erased the goose egg on the scoreboard and mercilessly halted the rhythmic clap that fans make at every home game until SDSU\u2019s first basket, which by that point had become an uncomfortable reminder of their growing ineptitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did a good job staying together as a team, even when we were down 17-2, whatever it was,\u201d sophomore guard Taj DeGourville said. \u201cOur first bucket went in, and it was just like, \u2018All right, come on, let\u2019s pick this up a little bit. Like, here we go. We\u2019re here now.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just kind of a wake-up for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It got better in the second half, once the Aztecs stopped turning it over and running a revamped offense with quicker ball movement and smoother flow. A 17-5 SDSU run cut it to three with seven minutes to go before UCLA regrouped and hung on for the win.<\/p>\n
But still \u2026<\/p>\n
Score over the final 32 minutes: SDSU 60, UCLA 50.<\/p>\n
Score in the second half: SDSU 37, UCLA 28.<\/p>\n
And remember, the Aztecs still don\u2019t have 7-foot sophomore Magoon Gwath, who warmed up in a knee brace and sat on the bench in uniform but hasn\u2019t yet been cleared for live game action. And junior wing Miles Byrd didn\u2019t start after missing most of the last two weeks with an abdominal strain, finishing with two points and four turnovers in 21 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our purposes, it was great,\u201d said Dutcher, whose team shot 57.1% in the second half after a miserable 26.9% in the first. \u201cWe found some deficiencies. We found some strengths. And we found some things to work on. That\u2019s what you want out of these things. \u2026 We got down and realized, \u2018Hey, if we don\u2019t play our best, we\u2019re not going to be very good.\u2019 We played at a higher level and played ourselves back in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was exactly what I wanted out of this scrimmage. I would have liked to win, but that\u2019s not the purpose of why we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dutcher started Taj DeGourville, BJ Davis, Reese Dixon-Waters, Jeremiah Oden and Miles Heide. Only Davis was a regular starter last season, and the inexperience showed immediately.<\/p>\n
The opening 10 possessions: turnover, turnover, miss, turnover, turnover, turnover, miss, turnover, turnover, turnover.<\/p>\n
Late in the first half, the Aztecs were shooting 4 of 21 overall and 2 of 13 on 3s with 14 turnovers. Halftime score: 39-23.<\/p>\n
Tyler Bilodeau #34 of UCLA and Miles Heide #40 of San Diego State vie for the rebound during an exhibition game at Viejas Arena on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
But Dixon-Waters opened the second half by draining a contested jumper from the left side, and that seemed to relax his previously panicked teammates. Byrd finally scored after an oh-fer first half, then found Dixon-Waters for an open 3.<\/p>\n
That brought the previously demure Viejas crowd to its feet, which in turn energized the players on the floor to continue a rally that ultimately fell short.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust mistakes down the stretch that we can\u2019t make,\u201d Dutcher said. \u201cWe know we\u2019re playing a coverage a certain way all game and we get outside of ourselves and think, \u2018Well, I think we\u2019ll try this. It might work on the floor.\u2019 And it doesn\u2019t work. You have to get back to your base, to your fundamentals, to win games, and we got outside our fundamentals down the stretch and made too many mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, there was too much Donovan Dent \u2013 remember him from New Mexico? \u2013 en route to 18 points, eight drawn fouls and 10 of 10 shooting from the line. Backcourt mate Skyy Clark had 13 points on just eight shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was happy they made a run at us,\u201d UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. \u201cI wanted to see how Donnie and Skyy reacted. I purposely didn\u2019t call timeout. You can do that when you have maybe the best two guards in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
SDSU was led by Dixon-Waters with 19 points in his first action since missing all of last season with a foot injury. The only other Aztec in double figures was DeGourville with 10 on a night when eight other players scored between two and six points.<\/p>\n
Some exhibitions allow unlimited fouls, but this one was played like a real game, where you get five. Newman and Pharaoh Compton both fouled out for SDSU in a game with 38 total fouls.<\/p>\n
Said Cronin: \u201cThey\u2019re either going to make the refs call a foul on every play, or they\u2019re going to tackle and push and grab and be physical. I know that. I say that out of respect. That\u2019s why we\u2019re here. So we could get that done to us. It\u2019s not for the faint of heart coming in here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Aztecs now have nearly two weeks before playing again, Oct. 29 here against USD in another exhibition. The regular season opens Nov. 4 against Long Beach State.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 17, 2025 at 9:06 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time we saw these San Diego State Aztecs, they were getting their doors blown off by…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":312883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1369,1370,18257,62,7289,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-312882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-top-stories-sdut","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115394104497918334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}