Magoon Gwath joined some rare company Wednesday night when he went for 25 points and 10 rebounds as No. 24 San Diego State drilled Fresno State 84-62 in its Mountain West Conference opener.
The 7-foot forward became the first Aztec freshman to post a 20-10 game since Kawhi Leonard, arguably the best player to come out of the program, did it in January 2010.
Gwath hopes for an encore performance Saturday night when San Diego State hosts crosstown competitor San Diego in Viejas Arena.
NBA scouts have been seen at Aztec games, interested in Gwath’s immense potential, even though he came into Wednesday night’s contest averaging just 5.3 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. Their fascination with the player who also leads Division I at 3.7 blocked shots per game was validated by his dominant effort in Fresno.
“I wanted to have an aggressive mindset and try to attack when I can in the right moments,” Gwath said. “I can do a little more than just block shots. It was good to see the ball go through the net.”
Gwath’s outburst put San Diego State (5-2) on track to change one of last season’s narratives. Four times, it reached the Top 25 and four times, it lost the next week and promptly dropped out. Some didn’t expect this youthful version of the Aztecs to find the rarefied air of the ranked but wins over then-No. 21 Creighton and then-No. 6 Houston at a tournament in Las Vegas got them there.
But coach Brian Dutcher still maintains the same approach now that he had before the season opener.
“I’m going to keep teaching them and growing them every game,” he said.
BJ Davis (13.7 points per game), Miles Byrd (12.2) and Florida Atlantic transfer Nick Boyd (12) are the team’s double-figure scorers.
While San Diego State aims for steady improvement, the Toreros (3-5) hope for better results in their second true road game of the season. Their first was Tuesday night, a 90-53 loss at Arizona State after the Toreros roared out to a 12-point first half lead.
The main problem for San Diego has been a sputtering offense that’s ranked 312th in Division I in scoring at just 67.5 points per game and is next-to-last in the country from 3-point range at 24.2 percent. The only player averaging in double figures is JUCO transfer guard Kjay Bradley Jr., who’s hitting for 16.8 points per game.
Third-year coach Steve Lavin said the key to bouncing back against a ranked team will be the ability to move forward.
“You learn from a setback like this,” he said after the Arizona State game, “and then you get back on the court and start working on areas that are deficient and build on our strengths. We did some great things in the first half and now we’ve got to sustain that level of execution and effort over the course of an entire game.”
Another factor for the Toreros will be improvement on the boards. They’re getting outrebounded by 3.9 per game and it was worse at Arizona State, which owned a 48-33 advantage.
This is the first meeting of the city schools since 2018. The Aztecs lead the series 23-14.
–Field Level Media
