Falcons host San Diego State Tuesday night
1/22/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 22, 2017
THE GAME
Air Force returns home from a two-game conference road swing to host San Diego State Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 7 p.m. MT in Clune Arena. The game will be broadcast nationally by ESPN3. The game is Air Force's lone game this week, as the team has an open date this weekend. The game is the first for San Diego State since Jan. 17 in Las Vegas.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
TV/Internet: ESPN3 (Ari Wolfe, Blaine Fowler)
Radio: KVOR AM 740 (Jim Arthur, Dan Acheson)
THE BREAKDOWN
Quick Facts Air Force San Diego State
Overall Record: 9-11............................... 11-7
MW Record:.... 2-5................................. 3-3
Streak:............. L 3................................. W 3
Last Game:....... L 85-87 2OT at UNLV....... W 64-51 at UNLV (1/17)
Next Game:..... at Fresno State (2/1)...... vs. Colorado State (1/28)
Conference:..... Mountain West ............. Mountain West
Nickname:....... Falcons.......................... Aztecs
Location:.......... Colorado Springs, CO...... San Diego, CA
THE COACHES
Category Air Force San Diego State
Head Coach..... Dave Pilipovich............... Steve Fisher
Alma Mater..... Thiel College, 1986......... Illinois State, 1967
School Record.. 69-84 (5th season)......... 378-202 (18th season)
Career Record.. Same............................. 562-284 (26th season)
THE SERIES
Air Force and San Diego State are meeting for the 76th time overall. The Aztecs lead the series, 53-22. SDSU is 19-15 at Air Force, 29-6 at home and 5-1 in neutral site games. San Diego State has won six straight overall, including a 70-61 win in San Diego last season. Air Force's last win in the series came Feb. 2, 2013 at the Academy, 70-67.
The teams first played Dec. 8, 1973 in Omaha, Neb., in the Great Plains Classic. The Aztecs won the game, 87-68, which is the lone non-conference game between the two schools.
LAST SEASON VS. SAN DIEGO STATE
Feb. 13, 2016 at SDSU
Trey Kell made two 3-pointers in the final 3:20 and finished with 16 points for San Diego State to beat Air Force 70-61 Feb. 13.
Winston Shepard and Malik Pope each scored 13 and Matt Shrigley had 12 points on four straight 3-pointers in the first half. The first-place Aztecs were coming off a 58-57 loss at Fresno State that snapped their 11-game winning streak to open conference play.
The Aztecs had to work for the victory after taking a 50-39 lead on Dakarai Allen's 3-pointer with 13:16 to go. The teams went scoreless for almost three minutes, and then Air Force's Jacob Van, Hayden Graham and Dezmond James each made a shot to pull to 50-45 and force SDSU to call a timeout.
Air Force pulled to 54-52 on Jacob Van's jumper with 5:18 left before Pope scored on a tip-in. Kell hit two 3-pointers to help stretch the lead to 62-52 with 1:46 left.
SDSU missed four straight free throws at one point before putting it away with four free throws by Shepard and two by Kell in the final 20 seconds.
Kell opened the game by missing his first five 3-pointers. He finally made his sixth attempt for a 34-22 lead with 4:14 before halftime.
Van and Graham each scored 17 points for Air Force.
LAST WEEK
Air Force dropped a pair of Mountain West road games. The Falcons lost 83-76 at Nevada Jan. 18 and 87-85 in double overtime at UNLV Jan. 21.
Jan. 21 at UNLV
Air Force and UNLV played another classic multiple-overtime game at the Thomas and Mack Center. The Rebels beat Air Force, 87-85, in double overtime Jan. 21.
Jovan Mooring scored a game-high 30 points and sent the game into overtime with a desperation, banked-in 3-pointer as time expired in regulation to tie the game at 58-all. In the second overtime, it was Jacob Van's turn, as he hit a runner from 3-point land to tie the game at 70-all to force a second overtime. In the second extra session, the Rebels hit five straight free throws in the final 17 seconds to hold off Air Force for the win.
Christian Jones added 15 points and six rebounds for the Rebels, while Tyrell Green added 12 points and Uche Ofoegbu had 10 points.
Air Force was led by Hayden Graham, who notched his second double-double of the season with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Van added 17 points, six rebounds and a team-high four assists. Zach Kocur added 16 points and eight rebounds while Frank Toohey chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds. The Falcons hit just 37.5 percent from the field, but held UNLV to just 33.8 percent shooting. Both teams had 56 rebounds and just 10 turnovers.
Jan. 18 at Nevada
D.J. Fenner scored 30 points and Marcus Marshall added 25 to lead Nevada past Air Force, 83-76, Wednesday night in a Mountain West men's basketball game in the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, Nev.
Air Force out-scored Nevada, 26-10, over an 8:30 stretch in the second half to tie the game at 59-all with 8:49 remaining, but was never able to overtake the Wolf Pack. Nevada stretched the lead back to eight points, 76-68, with 1:17 to play. Air Force got as close a four points after that, but Marshall hit five of six free throws in the final 28 seconds to secure the win for the Wolf Pack.
Nevada closed the first half on a 12-0 run over the last 5:06 to take a 42-27 halftime lead. The Falcons went scoreless over the last 6:40 of the half, missing its last six field goal attempts and committing eight turnovers during the stretch. The Wolf Pack had its biggest lead of 16 points, 49-33, with 17:19 to play before the Falcons made their run.
Nevada hit 54.5 percent from the field, including 37.0 from 3-point range. Fenner hit 11-of-18 field goals and had five rebounds while Marshall was 8-17. Cameron Oliver added 10 points and five rebounds while Lindsey Drew had nine points and a game-high eight assists.
Air Force was led by Jacob Van, who scored 17 points. Frank Toohey added 15 points and 11 rebounds to notch his second double-double of the season. Ryan Manning had 15 points off the bench and Hayden Graham chipped in with 10. Trevor Lyons scored eight points and had a season-high seven rebounds and a career-best four steals.
The Falcons hit 43.1 percent from the field, including 32.1 percent from 3-point territory. Air Force hit nine threes, the most since hitting 10 vs. Utah State Dec. 31. The Falcons out-rebounded Nevada, 37-27, and had 18 assists on 25 field goals. The team matched a season high with 10 steals.
