Aztecs bounce back with win over UNLV

On Wednesday night, San Diego State suffered its first Mountain West Conference loss by a single point to Grand Canyon. One thing head coach Brian Dutcher has preached throughout his coaching career is not allowing one loss to turn into two because that’s how seasons go sideways in a hurry.

The Aztecs practiced what Dutch preached, beating UNLV 82-71 in Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon. The man with the hot hand was junior guard Miles Byrd, who rebounded nicely from an off shooting night in Phoenix. Byrd scored 23 points, making all five of his 3-point attempts, while dishing out five assists and making four steals

Reese Dixon-Waters added 13 points, reaching a career milestone in the process. The senior forward who missed all of last year with a broken foot scored his 1,000th collegiate point with a jumper in the first half. Once again the biggest difference in the outcome was SDSU’s depth. Led by 13 points from Taj DeGourville, the Aztecs bench outscored the Rebels reserves 29-11.

SDSU improves to 8-1 in conference play to remain alone atop the Mountain West. They’re back home at Viejas Arena on Wednesday night against Colorado State before making the always difficult trip to Utah State next Saturday.