Aztecs Defeat Falcons

Once again, the San Diego State basketball team was much taller, quicker and better than Air Force.

Nothing new about that. It’s almost as much of a given as finding snow in the Rockies.

Now for the surprise. On Saturday night in the Cadet Field House, the Aztecs turned those attributes into a convincing, 88-73 Western Athletic Conference win over the Falcons.

Unlike past seasons, when the Aztecs would invariably get tripped up on the road by teams they should have beaten, they did exactly what they were supposed to do on Saturday night.

Last year, the Aztecs lost, 55-43, in Cadet Field House. The players were determined to make up for what they felt was an embarrassing performance.

This year, a crowd of 1,600 saw the Aztecs score more points in the first half than they did in the entire game last year. The Aztecs raced out to a 26-14 lead, and led 47-23 at halftime.

In a foul-filled second half that felt like it went on for days, the Aztecs never allowed the Falcons back in the game. Air Force never got closer than 14 points.

San Diego State shot 66% from the field in the first half and 57% for the game. The Aztecs attempted more free throws than field goals. They made 26 of 46 field goal attempts and 36 of 48 free throw attempts.

The 48 free throw attempts breaks the school mark of 47 set against Northern Colorado in 1971-72, Florida State in 1982-83 and Hawaii in 1982-83. The 36 free throws ties a school mark set against Cal State Long Beach in 1981-82.

Center Leonard Allen made 14 of 15 free throw attempts, his last 14 in a row. Bernie Finlay went 15-15 against LA State in 1959-60 to set the individual, single-game school mark. Allen also made three of four field goal attempts to tie guard Anthony Watson for game-high scoring honors with 20 points.

Clearly, it is a season of records and bests for the Aztecs.

At 10-2, the Aztecs are off to their best start since they started playing a Division 1 schedule in 1969-70. The 1966-67 team got off to a 15-2 start in Division 2 play.

Their 2-0 start in the WAC is the best since they won their opening two conference games in 1980, and this is the first time the Aztecs have swept a multiple-game road trip. San Diego State defeated Wyoming, 60-57, in Laramie Thursday night. However, before this season, the Aztecs used to play Colorado State on the same trip they played Wyoming and Air Force.

It is only the fourth time the Aztecs have won back-to-back road games, and they have already doubled the number of games they won on the road last season.

“Last year, we came out flat against Air Force,” said reserve guard Jeff Konek, who started that game and scored 14 points. “In the past, we have had a tendency to play around with teams like this. It’s hard to get fired up for Air Force.”

However, Konek admitted that was last year, when the team would come up empty if it’s main man, Michael Cage, was not at the top of his game.

“A lot of games we depended on one player entirely too much,” Konek said. “Last year, we were a one-player team with a supporting cast. We’re a team this year.”

That was quite evident on Saturday when Coach Smokey Gaines used 10 players in the first half with the game still undecided.

At one point in the first half, Gaines used a lineup of Konek, Mike Haupt and Watson in the backcourt and Ira Harge and Gerald Murray up front. Watson is the only starter in the group.

“You’ll probably never see that lineup again,” Gaines said. “But Reggie (Minton) is a nice guy . . . But I’ll tell you that nobody took pity on me my first year.”

Obviously, Gaines was insinuating that he did not want to run up the score on Air Force’s first-year coach. However, there were probably other reasons for his numerous substitutions.

Air Force (4-7, 0-2 in the WAC) was playing its second game in two nights, and its tired players did not appear able to successfully implement Minton’s new running offense. Up until this season, the Falcons ran a more disciplined, slow-down offense under Coach Hank Egan, who was fired and is now the coach at the University of San Diego.

Egan would not have believed the Falcons’ game plan on Saturday night.

The more the Falcons tried to run, the more the Aztecs outran them. And when the smaller and slower Falcons tried to slow it down, the Aztecs intimidated them inside. The Aztecs’ starting front line had a three-inch advantage over the Falcon front line.

“Once you control the middle,” Allen said, “you can control the game.”

That is exactly what Allen did. He blocked four shots in the opening minutes of the game.

Defensively, the Aztecs hounded the Falcons and forced them into many bad passes and shots. Incredibly, the Falcons attempted 76 field goals, which is 30 more shots than the Aztecs took. But the Falcons were able to hit on only 31% of their shots in the first half and 43% for the game. From the foul line, the Falcons made only 7 of 17 attempts, which is 31 less free throws than the Aztecs took.

Jim Gulsvig was the only Falcon to score in double figures. All 11 Aztecs scored. Creon Dorsey had 13 points (7 of 9 from the foul line); Michael Kennedy had 11 points and 5 rebounds; and Konek, playing more than he has recently, had 6 points and a team-high 6 rebounds. Harge had 5 points, Murray and Haupt added 4 apiece, Anthony Sands and Tod Monteiro had 2, and Andre Ross had 1 point in only 12 minutes.

It was just the type of team effort that Allen said the players talked about before Saturday’s game.

“We were totally embarrassed last year,” Allen said. “There is no way in the world they should have beat us.”

That is something the Aztecs have said a lot during the past few years.

Now, talk has turned into performance.