Air Force Academy – If Air Force needed a warm-up Thursday night, it was only to get started.
Once underway, the Falcons purred along to a 73-48 victory over Northern Colorado at Clune Arena to improve to 8-1 under new coach Jeff Bzdelik.
With senior guard Antoine Hood and junior swingman Dan Nwaelele each scoring 23 points, a career high for Nwaelele, the Falcons pulled away in the second half while handing the Bears their ninth loss without a victory.
UNC couldn’t keep pace, hurt by a 22-9 disadvantage in turnovers.
Bzdelik pointed to Hood’s leadership throughout, especially in solving UNC’s early success with a zone defense.
“We worked on a few things from a zone offense standpoint,” Bzdelik said. “We get something out of every game. We moved Antoine into the middle of their zone in the first half because of his quickness. … He really picked up defensively as well. He’s our leader.”
Hood also noted the benefits of working against UNC’s zone.
“We got the right movement,” Hood said. “They had to come out of the zone and play us man-to-man, and that’s what we want teams to do. The score might have looked different, but this game helped us a lot.”
The Falcons shot 50 percent from the floor, including a 14-for-28 performance in 3-pointers. Nwaelele was 5-for-6 from outside the arc.
The Falcons compiled a 20-12 edge in assists and an 11-4 edge in steals.
Guard Sean Taibi and center Kirk Archibeque each scored 10 points to lead the Bears.
Hood led the Falcons after a sluggish start, and UNC led for the first 15 minutes. Hood’s follow layup cut UNC’s lead to 19-18, and the hustle seemed to shock Air Force out of its slump. Hood added two free throws with 4:53 left in the first half to give Air Force its first lead of the game, 20-19.
After having trouble with UNC’s zone defense in the early going, guard Matt McCraw, Nwaelele and freshman Andrew Henke drilled 3-pointers and Nwaelele added two free throws as Air Force went into halftime leading 31-21.
The Bears converted only one of their last 11 chances in the first half.
NORTHERN COLORADO (0-9)
Olson 4-6 0-0 9, Gordy 2-9 2-2 6, Archibeque 4-5 2-2 10, Kline 2-5 0-0 5, Jefferies 1-2 1-1 3, Taibi 3-6 2-2 10, Lowe 1-1 0-0 2, Lewis 0-2 0-0 0, Panagiotakopoulos 1-1 0-1 2, Birden 0-1 1-2 1, McDaniel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-38 8-10 48.
AIR FORCE (8-1)
Burtschi 2-7 0-2 5, Nwaelele 7-10 4-4 23, Frye 0-2 0-0 0, McCraw 4-10 0-0 12, An.Hood 9-14 3-3 23, Henke 1-2 0-0 3, Anderson 1-4 2-2 5, Teets 1-1 0-2 2, Walker 0-0 0-0 0, Maren 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-50 9-13 73.
Halftime – Air Force 31-21. 3-point goals – N. Colorado 4-10 (Taibi 2-3, Olson 1-2, Kline 1-3, Lewis 0-1, Gordy 0-1), Air Force 14-28 (Nwaelele 5-6, McCraw 4-9, An. Hood 2-5, Henke 1-1, Anderson 1-3, Burtschi 1-4). Fouled out – None. Rebounds – N. Colorado 26 (Archibeque 10), Air Force 23 (Burtschi, Frye 5). Assists – N. Colorado 12 (Kline 3), Air Force 20 (Burtschi 5). Total fouls – N. Colorado 16, Air Force 13. A – 2,312.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
