Air Force Academy
San Diego State
Air Force Wins at San Diego State, 62-59
1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Air Force women's basketball earned a 62-59 victory at San Diego State in Mountain West action Wednesday night at Viejas Arena. The Falcons picked up its first Mountain West win of the season and their first conference road win since 2007.
Up by 12 points with three minutes to play, the Falcons held off a late Aztec rally for its first conference road win since Jan. 23, 2007, in a 76-60 win at Colorado State. It was also Air Force's first win at San Diego State since 2005.
Freshmen Mariah Forde and Kassady Huffman led the Falcons with 17 points apiece. Forde was 6-of-14 from the field, scoring 13 second-half points. Huffman added eight rebounds and was a perfect 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Air Force had its best night from the line, making 11-of-12 attempts, good for a season-best .917 percentage.
Junior Cortney Porter added six points, eight rebounds and five assists. The five assists give Porter 278 for her career, tying the Air Force Div. I era record for most career assists.
Junior Erika Chapman scored five points and had a career-high four assists. Junior Dee Bennett had her fifth straight double-digit rebound game with 10 rebounds, four points and three assists.
"I thought we defended a very good offensive team very well," Air Force head coach Chris Gobrecht said. "I thought our ability to defend their three-point shooting ultimately decided the game. We also got solid efforts from our bench in Venessannah Itugbu, Erika Chapman and Darby Glaab. The most satisfying thing about the game was building the big lead by how we found each other open, making the extra pass and finding easy baskets."
The Falcons held the lead for 27 minutes in the game. Air Force opened by leading 11-10 after the first quarter and went to halftime tied 25-25. The Falcons took control of the gamed in the third quarter, opening with an 11-5 spurt to go up 36-30. The Falcons added to their lead with clutch buckets from Forde and Huffman. The Falcons were able to build a double-digit lead late in the fourth.
"Mariah and Kassady hit some big buckets for us down the stretch," Gobrecht said.
San Diego State charged back with an 8-2 run to make it a three point game 24 seconds left. After Dee Bennett hit a pair of free throws, the Aztecs hit a three-point basket with five seconds left in the game to make it 61-59. Huffman was able to find Forde on the inbounds. Forde would get fouled and make the first free throw. Her second was off the mark but forced SDSU to scramble for a rebound and long final shot that missed its mark.
Air Force returns to action Wednesday, Feb. 1, hosting Fresno State. Tip-off, at Clune Arena, is 7 pm MT.
