San Jose St. meets Air Force in MWC tourney
No. 11 seed San Jose State (4-26, 1-17) vs. No. 6 seed Air Force (13-17, 8-10)
Mountain West Conference Tournament First Round, Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas; Wednesday, 6 p.m. EDT
BOTTOM LINE: San Jose State and Air Force are prepared to match up in the opening round of the MWC tournament. Air Force swept the two-game regular season series. The teams last played on Feb. 23, when the Falcons created 16 San Jose State turnovers and turned the ball over just five times on their way to a 14-point victory.
LEADING THE WAY: Air Force's Lavelle Scottie has averaged 15.6 points and 5.6 rebounds while Ryan Swan has put up 12.7 points and 7.2 rebounds. For the Spartans, Michael Steadman has averaged 13.6 points and 8.5 rebounds while Noah Baumann has put up 10.7 points.
LEAPING FOR LAVELLE: Scottie has connected on 28.7 percent of the 101 3-pointers he's attempted and has made 5 of 19 over his last five games. He's also made 60.9 percent of his foul shots this season.
WINLESS WHEN: Air Force is 0-9 this year when it scores 61 points or fewer and 13-8 when it scores at least 62.
ACCOUNTING FOR ASSISTS: The Spartans have recently created buckets via assists more often than the Falcons. Air Force has an assist on 36 of 76 field goals (47.4 percent) over its past three outings while San Jose State has assists on 45 of 71 field goals (63.4 percent) during its past three games.
DID YOU KNOW: San Jose State is ranked second in the MWC with an average of 70.9 possessions per game. The uptempo Spartans have pushed that total to 74.1 possessions per game over their last five games.
