AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — San Diego State’s basketball team has a tradition as pre-game warmups conclude of surrounding bouncy forward Pharaoh Compton as he flies down the lane for one of his patented dunks.

Saturday night, they gathered around the blue-painted lane at the Air Force Academy’s Clune Arena, and here came Compton, who spun and … aborted takeoff.

He went back to the top of the runway and tried again. Takeoff, ferocious dunk.

And that’s pretty much how the game went. Air Force, still winless in the Mountain West this season, jumped to a 5-0 lead before the Aztecs took off and flew away from the Falcons.

The 88-54 win was a welcome change from a year ago, when the Falcons weren’t much better (1-19 in conference) and the Aztecs needed a Wayne McKinney III layup at the overtime buzzer to escape what would have been maybe the worst loss in program history.

This one was over midway through the first half, when a 23-2 Aztecs run had interim coach Jon Jordan calling all but one of his allotted timeouts in the game’s opening 14 minutes in a desperate attempt to stem an oncoming tide that was washing away his sandcastle.

As if 12 first-half turnovers (to one by SDSU) weren’t painful enough, BJ Davis plunged in the dagger at the halftime buzzer when, with the clocking ticking from 3 to 2 to 1, he launched a 3 closer to midcourt than the arc.

Swish.

Coach Brian Dutcher said recently that he wanted “in the worst way” to reach their bye week in first place, and he has. The Aztecs (17-6, 11-2) remain tied atop the Mountain West following Utah State’s win Saturday night at Wyoming.

Now the Aztecs don’t play for a week, until Saturday against Nevada at Viejas Arena. The plan is to re-evaluate injured starters Magoon Gwath (hip) and Elzie Harrington (leg) in hopes, Dutcher said, both will “be at full strength for the stretch run.”

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Both were in street clothes again Saturday night, and the Aztecs didn’t need them, even with a shortened rotation at 7,067 feet. The Aztecs were projected as 22-point favorites by the Kenpom metric and led 23-7, 33-13, 59-33 and 72-39.

Temperatures outside were unseasonably high, topping out at 63 degrees in February at 7,000 feet, and the Aztecs obliged with some torrid shooting. Despite a 1 of 5 start, they finished at 60%.

The Falcons (3-20, 0-12), who have now lost 36 of their last 37 conference games, proved the ultimate slump buster for BJ Davis. The junior guard had been averaging 5.5 points on 26.7% shooting over the four games since missing a late free throw against Grand Canyon, and he shook that off with 16 points on 7 of 8 shooting.

Miles Heide had 13 points — a season high and one shy of his career high — on 6-of-7 shooting, and not all those were around the basket. He swished a 3 from the top of the key, making him 2 of 7 this season and 4 of 16 in his three-year career.

Reese Dixon-Waters continued his emphasis on pump-faking and drawing fouls, with half his 12 points coming at the line. Compton didn’t miss a shot (5 of 5) and had 11 points. Jeremiah Oden also had 11 and gave the Aztecs five double-figure scorers. Taj DeGourville had eight points, five assists and two steals.

Miles Byrd had only four points on 2 of 7 shooting, but he didn’t attempt a wild one-handed dunk after a breakaway steal. Instead, he safely (if unspectacularly) stuffed it with two hands, fulfilling Dutcher’s preference.

Thokbor Majak subbed in with 8:19 to go and filled the stat sheet as well, although maybe not with all the numbers he wanted. He had five rebounds … and four fouls in seven minutes.

Notable

The announced attendance was 1,741 in the 6,000-capacity Clune Arena, but that seemed a bit high. It included a strong contingent of Aztecs fans, some of whom made the trip from San Diego.

• The Falcons were without 6-foot-9 leading scorer Caleb Walker (11.9 points), who warmed up before the game but was ruled out again with injury. He has now missed six games.

• It was the academy’s annual Space Force game, with players wearing all-black uniforms and Space Force T-shirts in warmups.

• Instead of rolled-up T-shirts being thrown into the crowd, they’re dropped from the rafters with parachutes attached.

• The officiating crew included Randy McCall, who also worked last year’s 77-76 overtime win here.