In a season where the San Diego State women’s basketball team has reached significant peaks, it was only appropriate that their 74-57 win at the Air Force Falcons on Tuesday afternoon set a Mountain West Conference record.
The Aztecs (25-4, 19-1 MW) completed their 2025-26 regular season with the new mark for most conference wins by shooting a season-high 64.7% from 3-point land. Despite a slow start and 18 turnovers, making 11 of 17 triples — the 12th time this season they’ve made 10 or more in a game — and limiting the Falcons (13-17, 7-13) to 36.1% shooting helped SDSU pull away.
"Really proud of what we were able to do this season, and really proud of what we were able to do in the second half of this game," head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said. "(We) didn't start out the best way and Air Force designs it that way, they play a very physical brand of basketball and I thought we responded."
Natalia Martinez led all Scarlet and Black scorers with 22 points, her highest scoring game in conference play, alongside six rebounds and two steals. Naomi Panganiban added 15 points to make it the 10th time this season the duo have both scored in double figures, and Nala Williams added 13 points plus a game-high six assists.
SDSU outscored Air Force 45-34 and never let the lead dip below 11 points as Martinez scored 19 of her 22 in the second half.
"Martinez came out and had a fantastic second half. Hit shots for us like we know she can, but what people don't see is defense. She had some swarms, got her hands on some balls and defended at a really high level," Terry-Hutson said.
"We were looking for her, got her the ball (and) we need to get her the ball when she's cooking like that."
The post combo of Bailey Barnhard and Kennedy Lee also stepped to the foe, with each scoring 6 points. Barnhard finished with 8 points overall alongside six rebounds, while Lee snagged five of her game-best eight boards after the half.
Air Force senior guard Milhanie Perry set the Falcons’ all-time program scoring record when she made a layup with just under two minutes to play, surpassing Melissa Standley’s record set from 1986-90. Perry’s 26 points were a game-high, and she has 1,740 points in her career.
SDSU scored 8 of the first 10 points out of the break, then put the pedal to the floor with an 8-0 run just over four minutes into the third quarter. Martinez knocked down a 3 and Kaelyn Hamilton scored on successive possessions, then two minutes later Martinez was fouled by the closeout on a corner triple and converted the free throw to push the lead out to 15.
Lee scored 4 points in the final minute of the third quarter, but fouled Perry inside the final 10 seconds and was then called for a technical foul. The Air Force senior made both free throws then closed the quarter with a made jumper that made it 51-40 SDSU.
The Falcons began the game with aggressive pressure defensively, picking up length of the court on inbounds and trapping SDSU. Emily Adams scored 7 of Air Force’s first 9 points, aided by an early flagrant foul called on Martinez when the guard’s arm caught Jordyn DeVaughn on the chin while trying to get through a double-team. DeVaughn did not return.
SDSU trailed by as much as 7 points in the opening quarter twice, but 3’s by Martinez and Panganiban shook the offense to life. A 6-0 push in the final three minutes trimmed the lead to one, but a late free throw by Perry gave the hosts a 14-12 advantage after the opening 10 minutes.
Williams sparked a 7-0 Aztecs run to start the second quarter, converting a pair of free throws and then knocking down a trey to give SDSU the 1:21 in that they’d never give up. Perry stopped the spell with a layup, as her and fellow graduating senior Adams scored the first 16 Falcons points, with Adams scoring 17 points for the game.
Then Panganiban continued her hot shooting, raining a pair of treys while also drawing a charge on the defensive end to give the Scarlet and Black their largest lead of the first half at 25-18. After the Falcons put up 5 points, Williams hit a driving paint teardrop, then Hamilton scored the final bucket of the half on a breakout layup for a 29-23 halftime lead.
"That really was the question mark when we started this season, 'how is this very young team going to respond and how are we going to handle adversity?'" Terry-Hutson mused. "We hit adversity head-on in that first half and I thought we did a good job in the second half of the second quarter getting a little bit of breathing room."
"They responded, they're figuring out a way to win differently every single game and that makes us very, very dangerous."
The 19th conference win surpassed 2022-23 UNLV's and 2015-16 Colorado State’s marks of 18-0, with the prior record being former member Utah’s 2007-08 season when the Utes went 16-0.
San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Utah State will be joining the Pac-12 in 2026-27, while the Mountain West will add UC Davis, Hawaii and UTEP to bring their full membership to 10 teams — meaning SDSU’s record could remain for a while.
Up next is the 2026 Mountain West Tournament, with the Aztecs holding the No. 1 seed. SDSU will open play in the quarterfinals, facing the winner of the No. 8 seeded Air Force and No. 9 seed Wyoming in the first round.
Tip off for the Scarlet and Black will be at noon on Sunday, March 8 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. All first round, quarterfinals and semifinals games of the tournament will be streamed on the Mountain West Network, and an audio-only stream will be available for SDSU games on GoAztecs.com.
This story was updated at 9:46 p.m.