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No. 13 San Diego State tops Air Force

Jan 13, 2014 - 4:32 AM Colorado Springs, CO (SportsNetwork.com) - J.J. O'Brien tallied 18 points and 11 rebounds in No. 13 San Diego State's 79-72 road victory over Air Force on Sunday.

Xavier Thames added 16 points and five assists and Winston Shepard had 14 points as SDSU (14-1, 3-0 Mountain West) won its 13th straight game. The Aztecs' lone loss this season came in their second game to current No. 1 Arizona.

Josh Davis and Matt Shrigley netted 13 points apiece in the triumph, with Davis also corralling 11 boards. Shrigley hit three 3-pointers in 17 minutes off the bench.

"We talked about the fact that this was a team victory ... and underlined team," said San Diego State coach Steve Fisher. "We've got good people coming off the bench and we've utilized them. They've been good sometimes and OK sometimes. Tonight they were good, starting with our ability for Matt Shrigley to make shots."

Tre' Coggins played all 40 minutes for the second straight game and donated a game-high 29 points for Air Force (8-7, 2-2), which has lost two in a row and three of five overall. Kamryn Williams and Max Yon contributed 13 and 12 points, respectively.

"Our effort was outstanding," said Air Force coach Dave Pilipovich. "Our execution at times was very sloppy especially against their press. We talked about (the press), that they were going to pressure 40 (minutes) and we needed to advance it and look up the floor, but we got a little hesitant especially at the beginning of the second half."

The Aztecs trailed 27-24 late in the first half, but scored the final seven points of the period. Davis netted five of the seven, and his tip-in with 46 seconds left sent SDSU into the break with a 31-27 edge.

San Diego State controlled the early portion of the second half to claim the first double digit lead either way. O'Brien's free throws at 17:16 capped a 9-2 run for the visitors, who extended the lead to 14 points later in the period on consecutive Shrigley 3-pointers.

The lead was just seven with 1 1/2 minutes remaining after Coggins hit his fifth three of the game, but SDSU took the shot clock down on its next touch before Thames' jumper put the game out of reach.

Game Notes

San Diego State improved to 4-0 in true road games this season ... The Aztecs outrebounded AFA, 39-30 ... Air Force had 14 turnovers to SDSU's seven ... SDSU's reserves outscored their counterparts, 18-6.