AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – With just seconds left in a one-point game earlier this season, San Diego State senior guard Wayne McKinney III was entrusted with ball in search of the winning basket.
He flared out to the right wing and shot a 3 that rimmed out, and coach Brian Dutcher wondered aloud afterward why he didn’t get “downhill to the basket.”
This time, McKinney got downhill to the basket.
And might have saved SDSU’s season.
His coast-to-coast layup at the overtime buzzer gave the Aztecs an improbable 77-76 win at Air Force on Wednesday night in a game they absolutely couldn’t lose and very easily could have. Maybe should have.
“This,” McKinney said, “was our season.”
.@Waynemckinn3y is going the distance! He's going for speed! #GoAztecs pic.twitter.com/K14BwKk2Ny
— San Diego State Men's Basketball (@Aztec_MBB) January 23, 2025
Context: The Falcons (3-16, 0-8) entered the day ranked 297th (out of 364 Division I programs) in the Kenpom metric, which would have made it statistically the worst loss in the 29-year history of the metric – and perhaps in school history.
These same teams met two weeks ago at Viejas Arena. The Aztecs won 67-38 after erupting on a 40-4 run and holding the Falcons to two – yes, two – baskets in the second half.
The Aztecs stumbled Saturday in a 76-68 home loss against UNLV, dinging their NCAA Tournament resume but not ruining it. This would have been a step off a cliff.
Even in victory, the Aztecs (12-5, 5-3) dropped six spots in Kenpom, which projected a 14-point win, to 47th – perilously close to bubble territory. Less than two weeks ago, they were 31st.
“We all know Air Force is going to beat somebody,” Dutcher said. “I’m just grateful it wasn’t us. This is an academy team. They play hard as heck. You get them at altitude in their building, and we then make enough mistakes that we got punished for them.”
It was one of those nights when seemingly everything went wrong.
Like, everything.
Leading scorers Miles Byrd and Nick Boyd both fouled out in regulation, having combined for 14 points on 1 of 11 shooting behind the 3-point arc.
Three other players finished with four fouls as the Aztecs committed 31 total and sent the Falcons to the line 44 times, the most attempts by an Air Force team in Mountain West history.
They were outrebounded (again).
They had eight more baskets, 11 fewer turnovers, five more steals, six more blocks, and yet still trailed by four points late in regulation and by three early in overtime.
And then, up two with 4.9 seconds left, this happened:
The Falcons missed a 3, but little-used freshman guard Yoda Oke grabbed the rebound, was fouled and went to the line. He made the first to close within 75-74 and missed the second … only for 7-foot center Wesley Celichowski to slip between two Aztecs (with Dutcher screaming from the sideline to “BLOCK OUT”) and tip in the miss.
The officials went to the video monitor to check for goaltending.
No goaltending. Basket good – 76-75, Falcons. Aztecs ball, 4.5 seconds left, 94 feet away, season hanging by a thread.
McKinney watched film of the final six seconds against Utah State from Dec. 28, as agonizing as it was, watched himself dribble down the right side and never turn the corner toward the basket, watched himself settle for a contested jumper that never went in no matter how many times he pressed rewind. And vowed it wouldn’t happen again should he be so fortunate to get another opportunity over the final few games of his career.
“I learned from that, did everything I could to get better from that,” said the 6-foot guard who had two game-winners for USD last season, both against Pepperdine, both on jump shots. “I was ready for the moment. … Having them put that trust in me, knowing I could get that shot off, I really appreciate it.”
He took the inbounds from Taj DeGourville and still had a good 75 feet to go. He rubbed off a screen from Jared Coleman-Jones at midcourt, turned the corner and headed to the basket.
“I knew I had enough time to get to the rim,” McKinney said. “That’s what mattered to me. I didn’t glance up at the clock until I was gathering for the layup. I saw .8 seconds, probably.”
Basket.
Buzzer.
Falcons players collapsed to the court in disbelief as the Aztecs spilled off the bench and mobbed their redemptive hero.
McKinney finished with a team-high 18 points off the bench, all of it in 20 lung-crunching minutes in the second half and overtime. Coleman-Jones had 14. DeGourville had 11. Magoon Gwath had nine points, seven rebounds and two blocks.
Celichowski led the Falcons with 22 points on 8 of 8 shooting. Ethan Taylor had 21 points and eight rebounds.
The killer stat: The Falcons, who rank 362nd in free throw shooting at a miserable 60.9%, missed 14 on Wednesday. Shoot 72%, the national average, and they win by one.
“Everybody says that every team in this league is better than us,” Air Force coach Joe Scott said. “That’s a fact. So now, how do you beat that? One, you use it as motivation. And how you beat them is, you out-tough them, you out-compete them, you outwork them, you out-discipline them, you out-care them.
“And when you do and that’s your habit, you’re in that (late-game) situation over and over again, and a sense of confidence comes over you and you get really good at those last 4.4 seconds … We sorely lack the experience required to win those last 4.4 seconds.”
Notable
The team headed to the airport immediately after the game for a charter flight home to Brown Field in the South County because it was scheduled to arrive well after San Diego International Airport’s curfew. They’ll practice Thursday and Friday on campus, then fly to Reno for Saturday night’s game at Nevada.
• The announced attendance at Clune Arena was 1,434 but it looked closer to 434.
• Air Force’s 76 points are the most against the Aztecs in 20 years
• SDSU was even worse from the line: 17 of 27 (63%)
• The Aztecs are now 36-4 in their last 40 games following a loss.
• They are 2-6 in their last eight games above 4,500 feet. Both wins are at Air Force …
• With so much foul trouble, Kimo Ferrari got his longest stretch of meaningful minutes, 7½ in the first half and another 3½ in the second. He made a 3 in the only shot he attempted.
• The Aztecs went 11 deep given foul trouble and 7,000 feet of elevation, inserting Demarshay Johnson Jr. into the rotation as well.
• Freshman Pharaoh Compton struggled defensively against Air Force’s Princeton offense and played only eight minutes, most of it in the first half.
• Oke had previously appeared in only two games for four minutes all season for Air Force. He logged 19 minutes Wednesday after starting guard Jeffrey Mills fouled out.
