SDSU offense explodes in season opener with six in double-figures to top Titans

SAN DIEGO – Behind a dominant effort from their starting five and a pair of 10-plus point runs in the second half, the San Diego State Aztecs pulled away with a 102-78 win over the Cal State Fullerton Titans on Tuesday night at Viejas Arena.

Before the season head coach Brian Dutcher pointed to the play of his three starting guards as a key for the Aztecs’ aspirations. Against the Titans, the back court looked like the Godzilla monster King Gidorah, with each of the three heads helping to lay waste to the CSF defense.

There was Latrell Davis, putting up 25 points in his SDSU regular season debut, the ninth time with 20-plus in his career, thanks to 5-of-7 shooting from 3. Elzie Harrington roared to life in the second half, scoring 9 of his 15 points after the break, and Chance Gladden dished out a game-high 8 assists, which equaled the third-most in a game in his career — the threesome combined for just 8 turnovers.

It helped having powerful performances inside from forwards Bear Cherry and Tae Simmons. The fifth-year San Diego native scored 15 points with 7 rebounds and 4 blocks, while Simmons notched 14 points and 11 rebounds with 2 steals. Off the bench Luca Vincini chipped in 10 points and 7 boards.

After scrapping their way to an 11-point lead at halftime, the bit of fortune from Harrington’s attempted alley-oop to Cherry going in early sparked the strongest Aztec run of the game.

After a Josh Ward and-one for CSF, Harrington kicked off an 11-0 run by scoring 7 points in a row. Then back-to-back jams got the crowd roaring, as Simmons spun through the paint to throw it down and then on a fast break Davis lobbed it for Cherry to maul down and force a Titan timeout with a then game-high 19-point lead.

Out of the breather Cal State Fullerton responded with a 10-0 run, taking advantage of a defense that gave too many easy paths to the basket respecting the Titans 3-point shooting. Though pulling back within single-digits twice, it served to be just a stay of the result, as SDSU ripped off another big run, dashing off a dozen.

The inside-outside efforts of Davis and Isaiah Sy hitting from outside, with Simmons and a pair from Vincini in the paint pushed the lead out to 20. Sy finished with 12 points and made two triples and all six of his free throws.

Much of the opening 20 minutes was played at a herky-jerky clip as SDSU was in the bonus 30 seconds before the midway mark.

In the early stages it was the battling in the paint by Cherry that led to back-to-back buckets, including one on a nice baseline-reverse step-through. Then the Scarlet and Black served their first spot of 3 from Davis after the English-born guard scored his first two buckets on slashes through the lane.

But Cal State Fullerton didn’t allow SDSU to build a lead of more than two possessions in the initial stages, battling back with a pair of 3’s and then taking advantage of Cherry heading to the bench by scoring their next four buckets on paint drives. A back-cut baseline dunk by Malcolm Bell gave the Titans their first lead.

It was part of a 13-2 stretch by the visitors where Bell responded to a pair of Sy freebie makes with a triple, then Bailey Nunn knocked in another from beyond to make it 25-19 Titans at the 10:42 mark.

From there the Aztecs driving game helped them get to the line for what eventually became 25 times in the opening 20 minutes, with SDSU sinking 23.

After Vincini put the Aztecs back in front with an elbow jumper, Davis’s third of three first half 3-pointers pushed the lead to multiple possessions. But the game swung at the 3:47 mark as Luka Skorić drew a loose-ball foul battling for an offensive rebound, which set Titans head coach Dedrique Taylor off and led to him being whistled for a technical foul.

After all four free-throws fell, Sy making the technicals, a weaving Davis drive and score pushed the lead out to 9, then with the final 5 points of the half SDSU held their largest lead of the game at 54-43 at the break.

SDSU finished 27-of-32 from the free throw line and dominated the glass to a 44-26 edge, including 16-10 on offense. It’s the first time the Scarlet and Black had scored 100 points against a DI school in a non-overtime game since beating Texas Southern 103-64 in the second game of the 2018-19 season.

The Aztecs will not leave San Diego County until taking part in the annual Players Era tournament hosted in Las Vegas, beginning on Nov. 24.

Up next is the Bill Walton Classic against the Colorado Buffaloes, who were picked to finish 15th by the media in the 16-team Big 12 conference. Then a home game against Bethune Cookman on Nov. 11 at Viejas Arena, with the Compete 4 Cancer Classic against New Mexico State hosted at Frontwave Center in Oceanside, Calif., before rounding the stretch by hosting Texas Southern on Nov. 18.

The inaugural Bill Walton Classic will tip off at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7 at Pechanga Arena. It’s the same venue — then the Sports Arena — as the last time SDSU and Colorado met, with the Aztecs coming away with a 78-72 win during the 1975-76 season. The game will be televised on USA Network, with a local radio broadcast on 760AM KGB.