Colorado Springs, Colo. - Coming off one of the most dominant performances the San Diego State men's basketball team has ever enjoyed, a 98-61 win at Air Force, the Aztecs are eyeing a sweep of the two game series on Sunday night.
San Diego State concludes its longest road streak in nearly 18 years on Sunday when the Aztecs wrap up four consecutive road games with the back end of a two-game series at Air Force.
On Friday, San Diego State snapped a rare two-game losing streak with an emphatic 98-61 victory over the Academy. The 37-point margin of victory was the largest in school history in a road Mountain West Conference game and was the largest in any road game in exactly 36 years (SDSU defeated U.S. International 112-74, on Jan. 22, 1985).
San Diego State's offense exploded for a school-record tying 98 points in a Mountain West Conference game (also: 98 at TCU on 3-3-12). Five players set career scoring highs - Adam Seiko (14), Aguek Arop (14), Keith Dinwiddie Jr. (13), Che Evans (3) and Cade Alger (3). The Aztecs shot 54.5 percent from the field and improved to 33-1 in the Brian Dutcher era when connecting from at least 50 percent of its field goal attempts.
Defensively, the Aztecs forced 27 turnovers, the most by an Air Force team this century (since Jan. 21, 1999) and limited the Falcons to just 16 points prior to intermission.
With the victory, San Diego State extends its streak without suffering a three-game losing streak to 97 games. During that span, SDSU has had just three, two-game losing streak and the average margin of victory in those games in which this streak was on the line is 33.3 points.
San Diego State and Air Force are meeting for the 85th time (this is the sixth most played series in San Diego State history). The Aztecs lead the series 60-24 and have won the last four encounters between the teams and is 13-2 the last 15 times the teams have met. The Aztecs own a 22-17 advantage in meetings at Clune Arena.
San Diego State is 14-2 in its last 16 road games and is ninth nationally in road winning percentage since the start of the 2010-11 season (75-45, 62.5 percent).
The Aztecs enjoyed nice one-day bumps in the metrics following Friday's victory. Here is where San Diego State ranks in the metrics through Friday's games, with the change from Thursday in parentheses 15th in RPI (no change), 30th in Sagarin Ratings (up 2), 27th in BPI (up 12), 36th in Kenpom (up 4), 38th in the NET (up 8) and 53rd in Strength of Record (up 1).
San Diego State ranks among the national leaders in several categories including: 13th in scoring defense (60.7), 19th in Kenpom adjusted defensive efficiency (91.5), 32nd in turnover margin (+3.6), 40th in steals per game (8.4), 48th in turnovers forced (16.07), 54th in three-point field goal percentage (37.1),59th in field goal percentage defense (40.2) and 61st in scoring margin (+10.4).
San Diego State student-athletes lead the Mountain West Conference in the following categories Trey Pulliam assist-to-turnover ratio (2.71), Jordan Schakel three-point field goal percentage (42.0) and Matt Mitchell free throws made per game (5.4).
Senior guard Jordan Schakel scored 18 points on the strength of 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc in Friday's victory. The senior scored in double figures for the second straight game, the ninth time this season and the 39th time in his career. He extended his career-high streak of games with a three-point field goal to 13 and the Aztecs improved to 25-3 when he makes at least three treys.
Junior forward Aguek Arop had a career-high 14 points, three steals, while connecting on all five of his field goal attempts in the win over Air Force. The junior needed just 10 minutes to post his second double-digit scoring game of the season and fourth of his career.
Junior guard Adam Seiko, who is seeing the most significant playing time of his career, scored a career-high 14 points and added a career-high five assists with no turnovers in the first game against Air Force. This is just the 14th time in Dutcher's tenure as head coach that an Aztec player has posted a game with at least five assists and no turnovers (Malachi Flynn did it five times in 2019-20).
Junior forward Nathan Mensah, who saw his career long double-digit scoring streak snapped at four games in last Saturday's game in Logan, responded with 13 points, on 5-of-6 field goal shooting, and seven rebounds against Air Force. In the last six games, Mensah is averaging 11.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and has connected on 27-of-44 field goal attempts (61.4 percent).
Freshman guard Lamont Butler started his first career game Friday and responded with seven points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals. Butler had 15 points total in his first 12 college games but now has 20 points in his last two contests. In his last two games, the freshman has 20 points, six rebounds, six assists and eight steals.
Sweep On Aztecs Mind Sunday At Air Force
