Feb. 14, 2016
Air Force-San Diego State Final Box
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes | Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2
SAN DIEGO (AP) Trey Kell made two 3-pointers in the final 3:20 and finished with 16 points for San Diego State, which bounced back from its first Mountain West Conference loss to beat Air Force 70-61 Saturday night.
Winston Shepard and Malik Pope each scored 13 and Matt Shrigley had 12 points on four straight 3-pointers in the first half. The first-place Aztecs (19-7, 12-1) were coming off a 58-57 loss at Fresno State that snapped their 11-game winning streak to open conference play.
The Aztecs had to work for the victory after taking a 50-39 lead on Dakarai Allen's 3-pointer with 13:16 to go. The teams went scoreless for almost three minutes, and then Air Force's Jacob Van, Hayden Graham and Dezmond James each made a shot to pull to 50-45 and force SDSU to call a timeout.
Air Force (12-14, 3-10) pulled to 54-52 on Jacob Van's jumper with 5:18 left before Pope scored on a tip-in. Kell hit two 3-points to help stretch the lead to 62-52 with 1:46 left.
SDSU missed four straight free throws at one point before putting it away with four free throws by Shepard and two by Kell in the final 20 seconds.
Kell opened the game by missing his first five 3-pointers. He finally made his sixth attempt for a 34-22 lead with 4:14 before halftime.
Van and Graham each scored 17 for Air Force, which lost its second straight and 10th in 12 games. The Falcons have lost six straight to SDSU.
Shrigley failed to score in his first six games after returning to action on Jan. 23. He began the season rehabbing from reconstructive surgery on his right knee in late July.
With the game tied at 7, Shrigley made three straight 3-pointers to give the Aztecs a 16-10 lead. Malik Pope hit a 3-pointer and Shrigley then made his fourth straight shot from behind the arc to make it 22-14.
SDSU took its biggest lead, 31-17, after getting two free throws from Winston Shepard, a bank shot by Zylan Cheatham and a tip-in by Skylar Spencer.
Air Force pulled to 34-30 on consecutive 3-pointers by C.J. Siples and trailed 38-32 at halftime.
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TIP-INS
Air Force: Each Air Force starter, after he was announced before the game, ran over and shook hands with SDSU coach Steve Fisher.
San Diego State: Freshman point guard Jeremy Hemsley didn't start due to an injured right foot.
UP NEXT
Air Force hosts UNLV on Tuesday.
San Diego State is at San Jose State on Feb. 21.