The California Conference may well be all wrapped up for the St. Mary’s Gaels, but 2nd place isn’t a bad place to be, and San Diego State might well end up there.

After winning a wild one 59-44 over Santa Clara, the Aztecs are now 2-1 and only have their April 12 clash with Cal Poly left on the docket (Cal Poly is 1-1 and plays 0-2 UC Santa Barbara this Friday).

That April 12 game will be for 2nd, and potentially a DIA playoff wild card berth.

“We're happy with the result over Santa Clara and our development in training over the past few weeks,” said SD State Head Coach Alex Lichtig. “We have our sights set on a tough UCLA team this week and improving on our past two California Conference performances. We still have a long way to go as a team, but the players are certainly putting in the hard work required to improve week to week.”

A victory over the Bruins will also certainly help SD State’s playoff case.

Lichtig said he has seen some improvement in the Aztec set piece, and that’s because the team has been spending a lot more time working on it.

“This is a crucial area of improvement in order for us to compete with higher level teams, and we're certainly getting better,” said the coach. “We are also working to improve our defensive structures which are strong, but sometimes inconsistent, as evidenced by last weekend's scoreline.”

That certainly is the red flag for the Aztecs as they have given up 45 points a game in their three conference matches. At the same time, scoring 59 on Santa Clara means the offense is finally clicking, which it wasn’t even in their victory over UCSB Feb 28.