GAME NOTES: In a case of worst-vs-first in the Mountain West Conference, the league-leading San Diego State Aztecs match up against the woeful San Jose State Spartans at The Event Center on Saturday night.

The Aztecs, who have just four games left on the schedule before the conference tournament begins at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas the second week of March, assumed sole control of the top spot in the MWC earlier this week with a 63-46 thrashing of New Mexico in The Pit, combined with an unexpected loss by Wyoming versus Nevada on the road.

San Diego State has won six of the last seven outings overall, outscoring the competition in the last three by a combined 52 points.

As for the Spartans, the season cannot get over fast enough for one of the weakest programs in all of college basketball. The squad has just two wins in 25 opportunities, yet neither of them came against a Division I opponent. San Jose State is all alone at the bottom of the MWC with a record of 0-13, the most recent setback for the program coming against Utah State on Wednesday night by a score of 76-54 at home. Not only is SJSU winless in conference play, it has dropped 15 straight decisions since taking down St. Katherine College back on Dec. 9.

Because of the unbalanced schedule in the MWC this season, this will be the only meeting between these two programs, which is probably a good thing for the Spartans who are limping through the campaign as it is. However, believe it or not, SJSU actually leads the all-time series by a 34-32 margin, although the Aztecs have won three in a row, including a 90-64 thrashing in this building in the most recent encounter last season.

Employing a full-court press against the New Mexico Lobos as often as possible, the Aztecs limited the scoring opportunities available to the hosts on Tuesday night and cruised to the lopsided victory at WisePies Arena. Aqeel Quinn led the way with a game-high 20 points for the visitors, scoring 12 of those in the second half and hitting on all but one of his five 3-point tries throughout the night. Malik Pope pitched in with 16 points off the bench, while Skylar Spencer delivered 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Spencer now has 211 blocks for his career, three shy of the SDSU record set by Leonard Allen more than three decades ago. Spencer may not be much of an offensive threat, averaging a mere 3.2 ppg in league play, but that's only because he is playing to his strengths which is blocking shots (33) and hitting the glass (5.1 rpg) for a program that relies more on defense, giving up just 52.6 ppg, than anything else. Quinn and Winston Shepard serve as the scoring threats with averages of 13.1 and 10.4 ppg, respectively.

At this point the season can't end soon enough for a San Jose State program that has been plagued by injuries and disciplinary problems, limiting the number of players available to take the floor every night. Against visiting Utah State earlier this week, the Spartans finished with almost as many turnovers (16) as field goals (19) while shooting only 33.9 percent from the floor. Jaleel Williams managed to drop in 20 points and Rashad Muhammad another 12, to go along with six rebounds and five assists, but still the program was blown out by 22 in front of a sparse hometown crowd of a reported 1,311.

The numbers continue to get worse and worse for the Spartans in conference play, the team having scored 60 points or more in only three of those 13 defeats. Muhammad may be producing a solid 14.2 ppg in those outings, but he has shot a feeble 32.1 percent from the floor along the way, which is actually below his effort from 3-point range where he is 34.5 percent. Williams is now up to 11.3 ppg and is second on the unit with 5.3 rpg, but even though he has shown promise in the paint, he insists on trying to make himself into a 3- point threat even though he has converted a mere 28.4 percent out on the perimeter for a unit hitting at 27.2 percent on the outside.

Lucky to score even 50 ppg at this stage of the campaign, unless something drastic happens tonight in the Golden State, expect to see the Aztecs roll to another comfortable victory.