Credit: Don De Mars/EVT Sports
San Diego State Aztecs basketball is back in The Mesa as head coach Brian Dutcher and his highly anticipated squad hosted former SDSU assistant coach Chris Acker and Long Beach State
Viejas Arena – San Diego State University
Reese Dixon-Waters and Magoon Gwath were scratches for this game. Dixon-Waters missed with this game with an eye-scratch while also dealing with an illness, according to Dutcher. Gwath is on track to return to action on November 6 and could be good to go next week.
“Reese had a hard week,” Dutcher said postgame. “He was sick, so he missed two days with illness. Then he started to come back, and then he had a scratched cornea, I think. He came in with sunglasses on, and we are trying to see how quickly we can get that turned around. Hopefully by Sunday, tomorrow is an off day, and hopefully the medication starts taking into effect right away, and we can have him back on the floor.”
Credit: Don De Mars/EVT Sports
Sean Newman Jr, Taj DeGourville, Miles Byrd, Jeremiah Oden, and Miles Heide started for the San Diego State Aztecs.
It was another slow start offensively for the Aztecs. A story told many times. The first points of the season came from Miles Heide on a lay-in, but outside of that easy bucket, SDSU was 0-4 from the field on a couple of close misses. The rim was not kind to the Aztecs at the beginning. 15:47 remained in the first half, but SDSU needed to ramp up the pace.
The TV timeout seemed to help the Scarlet & Black quickly. Pharaoh Compton checked into the contest and immediately scored, and Miles Byrd drained a corner three-pointer. Long Beach responded with back-to-back triples.
The Aztecs started moving the ball really well. Not all the shots were falling, but the Aztecs were creating open looks. The three-point shots started to fall. SDSU would set it up with the drive and kick out. Tae Simmons and BJ Davis joined Byrd with triples of their own. Both Simmons and Davis attempted wide-open looks coming from good passes in the key.
The Beach kept playing aggressively as well. They were hitting tough three-point shots. Syracuse transfer Petar Majstorovic hit two triples and had nine points and four rebounds to help keep his team in this game early on. The game was tied at 20 with under six minutes to go in the first half.
Heide then scored his 4th and 6th points of the game with another lay-in over tough defense and then a fastbreak layup plus the foul. Heide would miss the free throw to keep it a 4-point advantage. Then, Byrd took over. He scored eight straight points off two triples and a fast-break layup. He started the game 3-3 from deep with 11 points on 4-5 shooting.
The Aztecs started to bring the house down. Freshman Elzie Harrington had a ridiculous driving dunk. Then, Compton slammed home another one on the fastbreak.
MY GOODNESS @ElzieHarringto1
📺 @KUSINews #GoAztecs pic.twitter.com/0dCex1I65U
— San Diego State Men’s Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) November 5, 2025
Funny enough, moments later, right before the half ended, Harrington had another opportunity on the fastbreak. He would miss the wide-open slam. SDSU kept its 15-point advantage heading into the half, 40-25.
SDSU shot 47.1% from the floor (16-34) and 50% from deep (6-12) in the first 20 minutes. The Beach shot just 35.7% from the field and committed 13 turnovers, with SDSU having seven steals. LB out-rebounded SDSU 20-17. The Aztecs found a way despite not holding a rebound advantage.
Credit: Don De Mars/EVT Sports
Sean Newman Jr. began the second half by taking away easy points with a clean block. DeGourville (who picked up his third foul midway in the first half) scored four straight points (2-2 from the line) to bump his team’s lead up to 19.
After about four minutes into the second half, Byrd limped off the court and right to the locker room with cramps. He would return to the court after a few minutes.
The Aztecs’ freshmen duo kept their flow going. Harrington assisted on an alley-oop dunk to Simmons to put SDSU up 18. Simmons has really shocked everyone by playing so well. He was scoring the rock, defending at a high level, and was one of the leading rebounders in the game off the bench.
“Shout out to the freshmen, both of them were really good today,” Miles Byrd said postgame. “Elzie played great, Tae played great. Thok had two minutes played and two offensive rebounds. So, it just goes to show how deep of a team we are, and with that, there is a lot of buy-in.”
SDSU started to run away with this game. Long Beach had no answer for the three-point shooting from the Aztecs. Harrington nailed the team’s 10th triple of the game as they improved to 10-21 from deep. SDSU made The Beach pay more often than not in this contest.
San Diego State’s lead reached 30 points with just over four minutes to go. Many fans left the arena before the final seconds ticked off. The Aztecs would keep control until the time ran out.
Cam Lawin and Thokbor Majak entered the game late. As Byrd said above, Majak grabbed two offensive boards, and Lawin drained a triple.
SDSU took down Long Beach State in blowout fashion. Latrell Davis did not play any minutes in the win.
“Good effort, good first effort,” Dutcher said postgame. “Forced turnovers and played all the way till the end, that is what we didn’t do a year ago. You know, they (LB) did what they wanted to do until we got a lead in the second half, and then that didn’t work out so well. So I wanted to make sure they did what I wanted them to do for 40 minutes, and we came closer to that.”
Up next for the Aztecs will be against Idaho State this Sunday at 2 pm.
News & Stats
5 players in double figures in scoring (Miles Byrd, Elzie Harrington led with 13)
SDSU out-rebounded LB 38-35
The Aztecs shot 43% from the floor, held LB to 32%
SDSU forced 21 turnovers
Freshmen Simmons and Harrington combined for 23 points on 8-14 shooting
Byrd ended with 13 points, 8 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block
Chris is a graduate of the University of San Diego. He is the former Sports Editor for the USDVista newspaper. Chris has covered the San Diego Loyal, and now covers San Diego State Men’s Basketball. He also contributes regularly about the Padres. Chris is an athlete and is a huge fan of San Diego sports.
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