It was a chilly evening outside Viejas Arena and it was even colder inside for the home team.
At the start, anyway. San Diego State overcame icy shooting to beat Air Force 67-38
at Viejas Wednesday.
“I barely got my shoes tied and sat down and looked up and we were down 20-12,” said head coach Brian Dutcher.
🏀 Highlights from @Aztec_WBB’s 81-62 win at Nevada pic.twitter.com/iJO20KMXSB
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) January 9, 2025
The Aztecs (10-3, 3-1 Mountain West) came into the game against the Falcons (3-12, 0-4 MW) having won six of their last seven.
The two teams started off by trading baskets, keeping the game close. But the Aztecs started
missing shots, going 1-of-5 on three pointers and 3-of-7 on field goals with about halfway through the first period.
Meanwhile, Air Force went 4-of-5 on three pointers to race out to a 20-8 lead. The Aztecs eventually thawed out, with forward Magoon Gwath grabbing a rebound off his own errant shot and putting it in for two points, guard Nick Boyd getting a second-chance layup and guard Miles Byrd making a fast-break dunk.
That cut what had been a 12-point Air Force lead to just two points at 20-18. Two free throws by guard BJ Davis brought the Aztecs all the way back. They later took a two-point lead on a dunk by Gwath. A layup by Boyd pushed their lead to 26-22.
Seconds later, Boyd would bring the home crowd to its feet with a thunderous dunk and then
cap off the Aztecs’ scoring in the first half by burying a three-pointer to push their lead to 33-24 at the half.
The second half started slow, but quickly heated up thanks to Davis who, in a dizzying two-
minute sequence hit a three-pointer, then a jumper, then a corner three and then another
from long distance. That pushed the Aztecs lead to 45-24.
“I just felt like it was there,” Davis said. “It was the right time for me to score the ball and that’s
what I did. It was good to get going like that.”
From there, the Aztecs kept rolling, with their largest lead reaching 31 points.
The highlights included a one-handed dunk by Byrd and a layup by little-used Kimo Ferrari that got a huge roar from the crowd.
“A good team performance,” Dutcher said. “Now we have to go back to work tomorrow.”
On a night the Aztecs had 12 steals and three blocks and forced 20 turnovers, Dutcher credited the defense for keeping SDSU in the game.
“Once we settled in, our defense picked up,” Dutcher said. “Our defense picked up and set the
tone for the game.”
The Aztecs travel to New Mexico (13-3, 5-0 MW) for an early start – 10 a.m. Saturday – in a game being nationally broadcast on CBS. The Lobos beat Wyoming Tuesday.
NOTES: This was the 89th meeting between the two teams, with the Aztecs leading the series 64-24 all time … Ferrari got significant playing time because illnesses Miles Heide and Demarshay Johnson. Ferrari, a San Diegan who played at Francis Parker School, got six minutes in the first half and 12 minutes in the second as the game wound down. Dutcher emptied his bench toward the end of the game, substituting in guards Cam Lewin, Desai Lopez and Ryan Schwarz.