Strong second half, season-high sharing help Aztecs drill down on Air Force

SAN DIEGO – During the week head coach Brian Dutcher likened San Diego State’s games with Air Force to ‘a trip to the dentist.’ After gritting their teeth through the first half, the Aztecs earned their lollipop with a 81-58 win over the Falcons on Wednesday night at Viejas Arena.

BJ Davis scored 13 of his 19 points over a 4:10 stretch in the second half to go with a game-high 6 assists, while Miles Heide had 12 points and eight rebounds to go with Taj DeGourville having his best scoring game since the season opener with 9 points on three 3’s.

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Defense keyed the second half swing after San Diego State (6-3, 1-0) led by 3 points at the half of their final Mountain West Conference opener. They dished a season-high 27 assists, making just four baskets without a helper, and forced 10 of Air Force’s (3-9, 0-1) 15 turnovers in the second half, getting 14 of their 19 points off turnovers in the final 20 minutes.

The second half began with a scrambling no-look save by Miles Byrd to Magoon Gwath in the post, who fed it up top for Heide to knock down his first 3-pointer of the season and the third from downtown of his career.

SDSU and the Falcons traded scores until Heide picked up his third personal foul at the 15:13 mark, which brought Pharaoh Compton into the game and raised the temperature for the Aztec defense. After the Falcons turned it over just four times in the opening half, they turned it over five times in the first eight minutes of the second.

Harrington got free for a straight-line drive for a layup and then Compton got fouled on a dunk for an and-1 that gave the Scarlet and Black their first double-digit lead at the 14:13 mark.

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Davis then had his ‘hibachi’ moment, knocking down a 3-pointer to start a stretch where he scored 13 of SDSU’s next 15 points. Over that span the Aztec lead grew to 61-44 and then even further when Gwath split a pair of free throws and DeGourville tripled.

SDSU allowed the Falcons to score multiple…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/strong-second-half-season-high-054634549.html

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Publish date : 2025-12-18 05:46:00

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