On both ends, No. 2 San Diego State overpowered and outhustled No. 7 Colorado State.

The Aztecs used an 11-0 run to close the first half to pull away from what was previously a tight contest. They never let it get closer than seven in the second period in a 71-62 win in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Men’s Basketball Tournament.

SDSU limited CSU to almost exclusively 3-pointers, rotating three physical 6-foot-7 or taller bigs to bother a relatively undersized Rams team in the paint. CSU only hit six 2-pointers and splashed 13 from downtown. Meanwhile, SDSU had 23 2s and only one 3.

“We came into the game knowing the type of offense they like to run. The main focus was pressuring the quarterback, as we call it,” Aztec guard Miles Byrd said. He finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. “A lot of guys end up at the top of the key with no dribble, trying to look for cutters and stuff like that. So just trying to pressure the quarterback, pressure them on the ball and take them out of their offense and make them uncomfortable.”

On the night, the Aztecs won the paint-points battle, 42-8. They outrebounded CSU 43-31 and were particularly dominant on the offensive boards.

That led to second-chance points — 18 to be exact — which fueled the run that gave them enough cushion to move onto the MW semis. In that stretch, Pharoah Compton got two second-chance layups, Miles Byrd hit a second-chance mid-range jumper, then Magoon Gwath hit the Aztecs’ only 3 of the game.

Colorado State didn’t score any second chance points until the midst of a late comeback effort. The Aztecs’ particularly poor shooting from deep (1-13) and from the line (22-42) kept it close, but never close enough.

“Luckily, we get to play in the same gym tomorrow,” Byrd said. “I thought we got good looks. I thought we got what we wanted. We didn’t take forced ones, like we’ve done sometimes in the past. Yeah, just got to continue doing what we did offensively in my opinion.”

Down the stretch, SDSU didn’t make a field goal in the final 6:49 of the game, in large part because the Rams started fouling with a good chunk of that time still remaining.

Couple that with the continued struggles from the charity stripe, and it could have been easy to lose focus on defense on the ensuing possessions. For all the shooting struggles, the fact they did not was what Dutcher was most impressed with.

“It’s a credit to our defense. You know, you miss free-throws, and you give in. All of a sudden you look up, and it’s a two-point game, but we continued to get stops,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “We got stops, no matter what happened at the foul line. We didn’t let the frustration consume us where we didn’t play good defense at the other end.”