Air Force @ San Diego St. preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 8, 2020 ) San Diego St. 89, Air Force 74

Following a historic regular-season that saw it set a number of school records including best record (28-1), consecutive wins (26) and best conference record (17-1), top-seeded San Diego State begins its quest for another Mountain West Tournament championship on Thursday when it faces ninth seed Air Force in Las Vegas. The fifth-ranked Aztecs have won the most Mountain West tourney titles (five) and have gone to the championship game in five of the last six years.

The Aztecs, who lost to Utah State in last year's title game after winning the crown in 2018, capped their regular-season with a 83-76 victory at Nevada on Saturday as junior guard Malachi Flynn scored a career-high 36 points. The Washington State transfer garnered both conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors this week while San Diego State's Brian Dutcher was named Coach of the Year with junior forward Matt Mitchell joining Flynn on the all-conference first team. Flynn is only the second player in conference history to win both MW Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, joining Utah's Luke Nevill who accomplished the feat in 2008-09. San Diego State now turns its attention to Air Force, which knocked off No. 8 seed Fresno State 77-70 on Wednesday afternoon in an opening-round game for just its third win in the last 13 games.

TIME: 2:30 p.m. ET. TV: CBS Sports Network

ABOUT AIR FORCE (12-19): The victory over the Bulldogs improved Air Force to 6-4 all time in opening-round contests in the Mountain West Tournament, but the bad news is that the Falcons have never won a quarterfinal game in 16 appearances. Sophomore guard A.J. Walker led the way with a career-high 24 points, including 5-of-7 from 3-point range, while senior forward Lavelle Scottie, a third team all-Mountain West pick by the coaches, added 21 points and six rebounds. Scottie leads the team in both scoring (16.0) and rebounds (5.7) while center Ryan Swan (12.7) and Walker (10.9) also average in double figures.

ABOUT SAN DIEGO STATE (28-1): Flynn, who leads the team in scoring (17.6), assists (5.1) and steals (1.76) to go along with 4.4 rebounds per contest, is the only player in the nation this season to average 16 points, five assists and also have an assist-to-turnover ratio of three-to-one or better. Mitchell is second in scoring (12.4) and 3-point shooting (39.8 percent), and is averaging 15.6 points and five rebounds while shooting 46.7 percent from behind the arc over the last eight games. Yanni Wetzell, a 6-10 grad transfer from Vanderbilt, was a second team all-MW pick and averages 11.6 points and 6.4 rebounds while junior guard Jordan Schakel also is averaging in double-digits (10.1) and shooting a team-best 43.4 percent from 3-point range.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. San Diego State won the lone regular-season meeting between the two teams 89-74 on Feb. 8 in Colorado Springs with G KJ Feagin scoring a team-high 21 points, including five 3-pointers, and Flynn adding 17 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

2. The Aztecs rank third nationally in scoring defense, allowing 59.2 points per game and second in scoring margin (plus-16.2).

3. San Diego State finished with only six turnovers in the Feb. 8 meeting with Air Force including just one in the final 29 minutes.

PREDICTION: San Diego State 81, Air Force 67