SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Nathan Mensah recorded a career-high 18 points, 13 rebounds and a career-best six blocked shots to lead San Diego State to a 74-49 win over Saint Mary's on Tuesday night in a game played at a neutral site. With the win, San Diego State has won 11 straight games against teams from the state of California.
"We played a solid defensive game,"Aztecs coach BrianDutcher said. "I couldn't be more proud of how we defended and then the ball started going in a little bit. I mean, we all know the offensive woes we had against BYU. But (tonight) we played with a little better rhythm offensively and made some jump shots. Nathan (Mensah), obviously…I couldn't be any prouder of him. Nate
made a big difference at the defensive end; anchored our defense. (Offensively) we shared the ball; we add scoring from a lot of different people, and just a really hard-fought, good win for the Aztecs tonight."
Mensah is the only Aztec player in at least 25 seasons to produce an 18-13-6 stat line in those three categories.
Terrell Gomez had 13 points for San Diego State (6-1). Jordan Schakel added 12 points. Matt Mitchell had 10 points.
Mensah hit the first bucket of the game and the Aztecs never looked back. San Diego State dominated the first half, shooting 14-of-23 (.609) from the floor and 5-of-9 (.556) from the bonus distance, and led 40-20 at halftime. The Gaels' 20 points in the first half marked a season low, shooting just 7-for-28.
Up 21-10 with 10:37 to play in the opening stanza, the Aztecs doubled its advangate in just over two and a half minutes. In the run, Gomez scored the first seven points with Mensah and Lamont Butler finishing it, and SDSU led by 22 points, 32-10, with 7:59 to go.
In the second half, the Aztecs didn't take their foot off the pedal. The hot shooting from the floor continued as SDSU went 10-of-20 (.500) and when Saint Mary's fouled, made the Gaels pay at the line going 12-of-16 (.750) in the second stanza.
For the game San Diego State shot 24-of-43 (.558), including 7-of-17 (.412) from beyond the three-point line and went 19-of-24 from the line (.792).
The Gaels (8-2) were riding an eight-game winning streak coming into the game, but shot just 31 percent (11-of-30) from the floor, 5-of-22 (.227) from beyond the arc and were just 8-of-15 (.533) from the charity stripe.
Logan Johnson tied his career high with 15 points for the Saint Mary's.