Mountain West Champs - Undisputed

With the 61-49 win over San Diego State Monday night, the Falcons have won the Mountain West Conference regular season championship out-right. Air Force beat every MWC team at least once and swept Utah, New Mexico, CSU & SDSU. Wyoming still looms as the final season game at their hous.

Air Force - Mountain West Champions. Note many ever believed those words would ever be used together in the same sentence. But it's true and well deserved.

Undefeated at home (13-0) and wins over every MWC team; sweeping Utah, New Mexico, Colorado State, San Diego State and the last season game coming Saturday against Wyoming, this truly has been a magical year.

The Falcons are now 21-5 and 12-2 in the conference. If this doesn't get Joe Scott his very deserving team to the big dance... somebody has fallen under the board table in overlooking the Falcons.

Senior starters AJ Kuhle and Joel Gerlach were again key to the Falcon's win over SDSU in their  last home game of the season. Kuhle finished with an amazing 11 assists, while Gerlach scored 14 points.  Senior reserve Marcus Jenkins also played 6 minutes in the win.

Nick Welch was the high scorer for the Falcons while Time Keller and Antoine Hood finished with 12 points each.  The Falcon offense was not necessarily at it's best Monday night but the threes did fall as ,they went 13 of 27 from behind the 3-point arc.  The Falcon defense was as tough as ever, smothering the Aztec offense on virtually every effort.  The Falcons won the turnover war with a 19-10 margin.  Air Force is now 21-5 overall and 11-2 in conference play. SDSU's top scorer was Aerick Sanders with 15 points.  The Aztecs fell to 5-8 and 14-14 overall.   The Falcons have one more season game as they travel to the Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday, 6 Mar 04 at 4PM (MT). 

More to come as the Falcons head into the MWC tournament as the number one seed.  But first they need to take care of business against Wyoming to firm up their record for the NCAA tourney selections.

Talk about this story and more Falcon basketball at the Air Force basketball forum.

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San Diego State vs Air Force
3-1-04 7:05 p.m. at Clune Arena -- USAFA, Colo.
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VISITORS: San Diego State 14-14, 5-8 MWC
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
03 WALTON, Chris....... f  0-4    0-1    0-0    1  2  3   2   0  1  1  0  1  33
42 SLAUGHTER, Marcus... f  3-3    0-0    1-2    1  6  7   3   7  1  1  1  1  29
34 SANDERS, Aerick..... c  6-9    0-0    3-3    3  2  5   5  15  0  5  0  2  31
01 HEATH, Brandon...... g  0-3    0-2    0-0    0  3  3   3   0  0  0  0  0  23
02 STOKES, Wesley...... g  5-9    0-1    3-4    0  2  2   3  13  3  9  0  0  34
00 JOHNSON, Tommy......    3-5    1-1    2-2    0  2  2   3   9  1  1  0  1  25
15 SHARPER, John.......    0-2    0-1    0-0    0  1  1   0   0  0  0  0  0  13
20 DAVIS, Trimaine.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0   4
32 WARDROP, Ben........    1-1    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   2  0  0  0  0  0+
33 MANKER, Chris.......    1-3    1-3    0-0    0  2  2   1   3  0  1  0  0   8
   TEAM................                         2  2  4             1
   Totals..............   19-39   2-9    9-11   7 22 29  20  49  6 19  1  5 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half:  7-18 38.9%   2nd Half: 12-21 57.1%   Game: 48.7%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  1-5  20.0%   2nd Half:  1-4  25.0%   Game: 22.2%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  5-6  83.3%   2nd Half:  4-5  80.0%   Game: 81.8%    0

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HOME TEAM: Air Force 21-5, 11-2 MWC
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
10 Kuhle, A.J.......... f  1-5    0-2    0-0    0  5  5   2   2 11  1  0  1  30
33 Gerlach, Joel....... f  5-10   4-7    0-0    0  1  1   3  14  1  0  1  2  29
45 Welch, Nick......... c  6-11   4-7    1-3    1  6  7   0  17  1  2  1  2  38
11 Keller, Tim......... g  4-6    2-2    2-4    0  0  0   4  12  2  3  1  1  37
15 Hood, Antoine....... g  4-9    2-6    2-3    1  2  3   3  12  0  1  0  2  34
05 McCraw, Matt........    0-1    0-1    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  1  0  0  1   6
14 Jenkins, Marcus.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0   6
21 Burtschi, Jacob.....    1-2    1-2    0-0    1  0  1   0   3  0  1  0  0  13
34 Nwaelele, Dan.......    0-0    0-0    1-2    1  0  1   1   1  0  0  0  0   5
42 Buchanan, Caleb.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  1  0  0   2
   TEAM................                            1  1             1
   Totals..............   21-44  13-27   6-12   4 15 19  14  61 16 10  3  9 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half:  9-20 45.0%   2nd Half: 12-24 50.0%   Game: 47.7%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  5-12 41.7%   2nd Half:  8-15 53.3%   Game: 48.1%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  2-4  50.0%   2nd Half:  4-8  50.0%   Game: 50.0%    3

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Officials: Stanley Reynolds, Mark Whitehead, Jim Danner
Attendance: 5811
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
San Diego State...............   20   29  -   49
Air Force.....................   25   36  -   61

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Talk about this story and more Falcon basketball at the Air Force basketball forum.