SAN DIEGO_A season going sideways suddenly lurched back on course.
Twelve days after the worst loss of the Brian Dutcher era, we got the signature victory of the Brian Dutcher era _ 72-70 against No. 12 Gonzaga on Thursday night in front of the first Viejas Arena sellout in nearly a year.
It may or may not revive the 8-3 Aztecs' hopes of an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament, but what it did revive was perhaps more important: their spirits, their swagger, their sense of being.
Life as a mid-major in a one-bid league can be a depressing proposition these days, with little of true meaning to play for outside of a week in March at your conference tournament. But put a ranked opponent on your home floor, in front of a rabid crowd, against a proud team fighting for a return to national relevance, and you get an electric, memorable night with an NCAA Tournament feel.
The Aztecs used the 12-day layoff _ you have to go back 37 years to find a longer break between regular-season games _ to work on their own deficiencies. They also might have drilled Gonzaga's offensive sets, over and over and over.
What screens to go under. Which ones to switch. When to double-team the low post. When to help.
They also (finally) figured out how to solve a zone defense and made a few timely 3s, particularly in the frantic opening moments that whipped Viejas into a froth.
But they won this with their old staple, sit down-and-guard defense paired with grind-it-out offense. (How else do you win while shooting 36.1 percent?)
SDSU held the Zags (10-3) to 42.4-percent shooting three days after they lit up IUPUI for 68 percent. Leading scorer Josh Perkins didn't score until the second half and finished with five points before fouling out, nearly 10 under his average. He and senior backcourt mate Silas Melson combined to shoot 4 of 19.
And they won with a healthy Trey Kell, who had been sidelined during crunch time of (excruciating) losses to Washington State and Cal. Kell didn't start but he was on the floor, with the ball, when it mattered _ drawing fouls that sent him to the line three times in the final three minutes, then making a twisting reverse layup that clinched it inside a minute to go. Thirteen of his 14 points came in the second half.
They also won with freshmen. Matt Mitchell and Jalen McDaniels each had 15 points. Mitchell played a team-high 36 minutes, and McDaniels had 10 rebounds _ five on the offensive end.
Malik Pope had nine points and six rebounds in 21 minutes, but he went to the bench with 6:39 left, presumably for a quick blow before crunch time. Instead, he never returned and McDaniels and Montana played out the game.
Both coaching staffs faced key tactical decisions before tip-off. Dutcher, he of seven career victories as a head coach, had to decide who to start. Gonzaga's Mark Few, he of 513 career wins, had to decide whether to open in man or zone defense.
Give the whiteboard nod to the guy with seven.
Kell was healthy enough to play from his recent knocks (right ankle, left thigh), and Dutcher had toyed with starting him in practice alongside 6-foot-9 Max Montana in place of 7-1 Kameron Rooks � the idea being to get another shooter on the floor in case the Zags, as expected, opened in zone.
But Dutcher opted to start Jeremy Hemsley instead of Kell, as he had in the wins against USD and Bradley when Kell was sidelined. And he went with Rooks despite a rough outing the loss against Cal.
And Few opened in man.
The result: SDSU leads of 11-0 and 22-10, and an energized Viejas Arena crowd.
Few eventually switched to a 2-3 zone, and played it in a similar manner to Cal _ with guards on top tucked together to deter the high-post pass and the baseline wings pushed up high and wide, with only a single big protecting the basket.
The Aztecs were more active and moved the ball better than the Dec. 3 debacle against Cal, but they weren't much more effective on the scoreboard � scoring just three points over the final eight minutes of the first half for a total of 25.
The good news was, the Zags were even worse against SDSU's man-to-man and trailed 25-23. They shot 10 of 30 overall, 2 of 12 on 3s. They had nine turnovers and got to the free-throw line only once, the recipe that sent them to overtime at home last week against a North Dakota team that was a 30-point underdog and had a 252 RPI.
It stayed close into the second half, largely a symphony of clanked 3s by both teams, until SDSU finally got the ball to the high post with more regularity. Few finally blinked, calling timeout with 8:40 left after McDaniels scored six straight SDSU points _ two of them jumpers from the heart of the zone _ to give the Aztecs a 44-37 cushion.
The stat of the game: Late in the first half and into the second half, Gonzaga had the ball 16 times with a chance to tie or take the lead. And didn't.
Students didn't rush the floor after the victory, not because they didn't want to but because arena security literally fought them off � causing a few minor skirmishes along the baseline by Gonzaga's bench. At least one student was escorted out of the arena.
"Our kids played real gritty and tough," Dutcher said after the game on CBS Sports Network. "They guarded hard. I thought we got a lot better against the zone and I thought our kids played hard enough and tough enough to win this game."
On McDaniels, Dutcher said: "He's an energetic freshman. He's long, he's athletic and he plays hard all the time. He's going to have a very special future here at San Diego State."
