SAN DIEGO -- The University of Utah men's basketball team came to San Diego State with a four-game winning streak that included an upset of then-No. 16 Gonzaga.

Historically, the Utes would have added to that streak, but, oh, how times have changed in the Mountain West Conference. The Aztecs won convincingly 72-63 Saturday afternoon before 6,256 fans at Cox Arena.

San Diego State (12-3, 2-0 MWC) has reached a point in program development that after beating Utah (10-6, 1-1), head coach Steve Fisher sat back with a confident smile and looked ahead -- to the Chargers' AFC playoff game today against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"Go-o-o-o Chargers!" Fisher said. "I didn't cancel practice, but we ain't practicing. We're all going to be watching."

The win marked the first time in program history the Aztecs have beaten Utah three straight times and the 12-3 overall record matches the best start in San Diego State's Division I history.

The Aztecs have won five straight and their 2-0 conference record ties them for first place with Texas Christian (11-5, 2-0), which upset preseason favorite Nevada-Las Vegas (13-3, 1-1).

"Coach Fisher has done a great job of rebuilding this program to the top of the Mountain West Conference," said senior center/forward Ryan Amoroso. "We're not at our best yet; we don't think we've peaked yet.

"We can get better. The future is pretty exciting right now."

Amoroso came off the bench to spark the Aztecs with 17 points, eight rebounds and solid defense on Utah's 7-foot-2 senior center, Luke Nevill.

Nevill's line in the box score looks good: 17 points, seven rebounds. But he had only three points at halftime and eight of his 14 second-half points came on free throws. None of his three second-half baskets changed the game's momentum.

"A lot of what they do is go through Nevill," said Amoroso, a 6-8, 263-pounder. "He's stepped up his game and turned himself into a (NBA) first-round draft pick.

"Our game plan was to have me and Tim (Shelton) make him catch the ball off the block. If he was out of his comfort zone, he'd have to make a move and put the ball on the floor, and by that time we had guards digging at the ball to give help."

Nevill, averaging 18.0 points and 8.4 rebounds, was coming off a 23-point game against LSU and 29 against Wyoming.

But after San Diego State sophomore D.J. Gay tied the score with a 3-point field goal and Amoroso followed with a basket for a 5-3 lead, the Aztecs never trailed the rest of the game. A key reason is they never allowed Utah to go on an unanswered scoring run of more than 5-0.

Early in the game, Amoroso scored seven points in a 10-0 run that was followed by another 6-0 run to give the Aztecs a 16-5 lead. That lead essentially stood up the rest of the game.

Another key to the win was that the Aztecs committed only six turnovers.

"We were getting easy baskets off turnovers," Fisher said, "but we only had six turnovers, so they didn't have many chances for easy baskets."