Air Force Academy – Air Force coach Jeff Bzdelik thought the Falcons’ game Saturday at Clune Arena against upset-minded Colorado State was similar to having a root canal.
But late in the Mountain West Conference game, the Falcons turned to their strong suit, hitting three important 3-point field goals in beating the Rams 67-58 before 5,858 fans and extending the nation’s longest home- court winning streak to 30 games.
Air Force (23-4, 10-3 MWC) swept the regular-season series with CSU, defeating the Rams for the sixth straight time and ninth time in the Front Range rivals’ past 10 meetings.
Jacob Burtschi, Matt McCraw and Dan Nwaelele cashed in the clutch shots, each time extending Air Force’s lead to 12 points and preventing a CSU run.
Air Force made 7-of-12 shots from 3-point range in the second half and finished 10-for-24 overall. Nwaelele, a 6-foot-5 senior forward, was 5-for-10 on 3-pointers and led the Falcons with 18 points. CSU (15-10, 5-8) wasted game-high totals of 22 points and 10 rebounds from 7-foot junior Jason Smith, who helped the Rams fight back from a 50-37 deficit with 9:02 left.
Burtschi’s 3-pointer made it 56-44 with 6:22 left. McCraw offset Smith’s three-point play with a 3-pointer that gave the Falcons a 59-47 lead with 5:52 to play. Nwaelele’s 3-pointer pushed the Falcons ahead 64-52 with 2:16 left.
“That’s us,” Bzdelik said of the Falcons’ 3-point shooting. “We need to shoot the ball well against this particular team because they are hard for us to stop because of Jason Smith. It made it like a root canal in terms of trying to get away from them.”
McCraw, a 6-2 senior guard, finished with 15 points.
“Some of those looks were open, some were not, some were with the shot clock winding down,” McCraw said. “It’s all about making shots and keeping that lead at double digits. That’s always a good thing down the stretch.”
The game was physical at both ends, with the Falcons and Rams combining for 40 fouls.
CSU didn’t have much scoring punch other than Smith’s production, with the Rams’ other four starters combining for only 17 points.
“You have to play an awfully, awfully good game to beat the Falcons here,” CSU coach Dale Layer said. “We played a good game, not an awfully good game. It used to be hard to play in Clune Arena because there was nobody here. Now it’s hard to play because it’s a great college environment. Their student section is hard on us, but I love them. This is way you play college basketball.”
Burtschi, a 6-6 senior forward, finished with 10 points, six rebounds and a game-high four steals. Junior guard Tim Anderson also scored 10 points for the Falcons, who led 28-20 at halftime and shot 44.4 percent from the field for the game. Starters accounted for 62 of Air Force’s points, and the Falcons led the last 29:41 of the game.
Bzdelik, though, wasn’t satisfied.
“It wasn’t a well-played game offensively from our standpoint,” he said.
COLORADO STATE (15-10, 5-8 MWC)
J. Smith 9-12 4-5 22, Creason 1-2 0-0 2, Lewis 2-10 1-2 5, T. Smith 3-6 2-2 10, Denson 0-1 0-0 0, Kilby 1-3 2-2 4, Surratt 0-0 0-0 0, Robinson 1-2 4-4 6, Gilling 3-7 0-0 9. Totals 20-43 13-15 58.
AIR FORCE (23-4, 10-3)
Burtschi 4-8 0-0 10, Nwaelele 5-10 3-4 18, Welch 3-7 3-4 9, McCraw 3-7 7-7 15, Anderson 3-6 3-4 10, Henke 0-1 0-0 0, Hood 0-0 0-0 0, Teets 0-1 0-0 0, Johnson 1-1 0-0 2, Frye 1-4 1-3 3. Totals 20-45 17-22 67.
Halftime – AFA 28-20. 3-point goals – CSU 5-13 (Gilling 3-5, T. Smith 2-3, Robinson 0-1, Denson 0-1, J. Smith 0-1, Lewis 0-2); AFA 10-24 (Nwaelele 5-10, Burtschi 2-3, McCraw 2-6, Anderson 1-3, Welch 0-1, Teets 0-1). Fouled out – Creason. Rebounds – CSU 27 (J. Smith 10), AFA 24 (Burtschi 6). Assists – CSU 10 (Lewis 7); AFA 14 (Anderson 4, McCraw 4). Total fouls – CSU 24, AFA 16. A – 5,858.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
