San Diego State (10-3, 3-1 MW) dominated the glass and the second half Wednesday night in a decisive 67-38 home victory over Air Force (3-12, 0-4 MW). The Scarlet and Black were struggling early but quickly responded with a massive 25-4 run to close out the first half.
Midway through the first half, down 20-8, head coach Brian Dutcher called a timeout and calmed his team. From then on, SDSU held the Falcons to just 18 points in the remaining 29 minutes of gameplay. Senior guard Nick Boyd led the Aztecs in scoring with 16 points.
“We took a timeout to try to settle things a little bit. It’s a 40-minute game, and once we settled in, our defense picked up,” Dutcher said. “They had 20 points 10 minutes in, then they ended up with 24 for the half, and we held them to 14 in the second half. Our defense picked up and set the tone for the game.”
Coming out of that break, SDSU forced two shot clock violations and swayed momentum in their favor. Sophomore guard BJ Davis commented on the team’s response to being down early.
“We were dialed in defensively. All five guys were out there, connected, and we were playing for each other. It led us to get multiple stops, one after another,” he said.
San Diego State is the only Division I team leading its conference in scoring defense, field-goal percentage defense, three-point percentage defense and blocks per game. The only Mountain West team to ever do that for an entire season was the 2021-22 Aztecs. They average six blocked shots per game, which is fifth in the nation and leads the conference.
Defense translated into offense for the Aztecs. They managed 24 points off 20 forced turnovers, 13 of those takeaways coming in the first half. Senior forward Jared Coleman-Jones discussed the significance of turnovers fueling his team’s scoring outbursts.
“It is super important. That’s how we get going, especially in our frontcourt. It’s running through balls and playing pressure defense which makes it easier for the postman,” Coleman-Jones said. “We have such an aggressive front line when it comes to our guards. They can’t run a comfortable offense.”
Davis opened up the second half with an 11-0 run that energized the arena. In under two minutes, he nailed four shots, including three triples and stretched his team’s lead to 21. Davis finished the game with 15 points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal.
Winning on the boards was another key to victory. San Diego State doubled Air Force in total rebounding (49-24) and had 24 offensive rebounds leading to 22 second-chance points.
Improving the offensive rebounding has been a major focus for SDSU this season. Coleman-Jones discussed the mindset in the postgame presser.
“Early in the season, we had our struggles,” he said. “We see the ball going in a lot. It’s hard to think I’m going to crash the paint right now because I see Miles Byrd or BJ Davis step into a shot, and I think it is going in. As much as I trust their shots, it’s about sending a message, we have to go to the glass to rebound.”
This was the 89th time the two teams have met, the Aztecs have a record 65-25 against the Falcons. SDSU has now won 17 straight home games against Air Force, with their last loss on Feb. 28, 2005.
Big men Miles Heide and Demarshay Johnson Jr. were both sidelined due to illness but are hopeful for the game against New Mexico on Jan. 11. Heide has proven to be a valuable rebounder off the bench. He ranks 15th in the nation and first in the Mountain West in offensive rebounds per 40 mins played (6.4/g).
Saturday morning the Aztecs travel to The Pit to take on the University of New Mexico (13-3, 5-0 MW). It will be their fifth conference game of the season and just their third game at an opposing team’s home gym.
