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San Diego State overwhelms Air Force

Feb 7, 2007 - 7:10 AM SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Air Force continues to stay grounded on the road.

Mohamed Abukar scored 16 points to lead San Diego State to a humbling 62-41 victory over the 13th-ranked Falcons in a Mountain West Conference matchup.

Air Force (20-4, 7-3 MWC) suffered its fourth defeat away from home this season, scoring a season low in points, including a mere 16 in the first half.

"We took pride in our defense tonight," Abukar said. "We came out and played team defense. We had a couple of days to prepare for them and our coaches did a great job preparing us for them. We were excited to play and had a lot of intensity and energy. It feels good how it all came together."

The Aztecs (16-7, 5-4) avenged a 56-51 loss to the Falcons on January 20 and beat a ranked opponent for the first time since December 8, 2001, when they defeated Fresno State.

Brandon Heath added 14 points for San Diego State, which used a 13-0 run to open a 41-22 lead midway through the second half.

This is the biggest win we've had since I've been here," Heath said. "We've enjoyed every minute of it, but I think the fans enjoyed it even more. We were well-prepared for this game ... and it was a game we expected to win. We just have to move on from here."

Andrew Henke hit a pair of 3-pointers - the first two of the game for Air Force - to cut the deficit to 44-30 before the Aztecs answered with 10 unanswered points to balloon the margin to 24 points with 4:50 left.

Jerome Habel had an electrifying lefthanded-windmill dunk in that spurt and finished with 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting.

"I was very proud of how we defended," Aztecs coach Steve Fisher said. "In the first half they had no offensive rebounds, no back cuts and no 3-point field goals. We made them take difficult shots and we gave them only one shot each possession.

"We played some pretty good basketball in the first half and in the second half we were able to maintain that lead."

Henke was the only player in double figures with 11 points for the Falcons, who finished 3-of-19 from the arc.

"We had a lot of open shots. We were fortunate to even draw rims sometimes," Air Force coach Jeff Bzdelik said. "We certainly have not played well on the road the last three games in terms of giving us a chance to win.

"We talk about how important it is to play your best basketball for 40 minutes to have a chance to win and we certainly didn't do that."