Air Force Academy – Slip, sliding away.
Poised and rested Brigham Young lengthened the puzzling late-season slide by Air Force, coming from behind Tuesday night to beat the 25th-ranked Falcons 62-58 at Clune Arena.
BYU clinched a share of the Mountain West Conference men’s basketball title and the No. 1 seed in next week’s MWC Tournament.
Not only did the Cougars (22-7, 12-3 MWC) hand Air Force (23-7, 10-6) a third straight loss, they stopped the Falcons’ 30-game home win streak that was tied with BYU for the longest in Division I.
BYU can win the conference’s regular-season title outright by beating rival Utah at home Saturday.
“I think it’s really important to finish the season as strong as we can,” BYU coach Dave Rose said. “The Utah game always is a special game for us. I think our guys are deserving of a conference championship.”
Air Force isn’t finishing the season strong. The Falcons, who started 17-1, are only 6-6 in their past 12 games.
Coach Jeff Bzdelik took a philosophical approach to the outcome of Tuesday’s game, which gave the Cougars a sweep of the season series.
“To have them play, fight and scrap, I’m so proud of them,” Bzdelik said of his players. “Unfortunately we measure success by the score. But our players had success. They’ve gone through a tough schedule. We’ve hit a couple of bumps. We’re going to have to respond in the conference tournament. We’ve won 47 games in two years. They played their hearts out and I’m proud of them.”
Bzdelik revealed that senior starters Matt McCraw and Nick Welch came out of Air Force’s travel nightmare over the weekend with a virus that left them hospitalized Monday and Tuesday. They combined for only six points against the Cougars.
The Falcons were delayed trying to return from the Texas Christian game Saturday and didn’t get back to the academy until Monday afternoon – on a military flight.
Even Rose said the Falcons’ fatigue from their weekend ordeal could have been a factor in BYU’s victory.
Air Force wilted after taking a 49-38 lead with 13:19 remaining and didn’t score again after Jacob Burtschi’s 3-pointer gave the Falcons a 58-56 lead with 4:50 left. Burtschi, a senior forward, finished with 15 points.
The Falcons had a chance to tie the game in the last minute, but Burtschi’s turnover with 19 seconds left ended their hopes. The Falcons committed 13 turnovers overall.
“We played at our best defensively in the last four or five minutes,” Rose said.
Junior guard Tim Anderson also scored 15 points for the Falcons, who shot 45.5 percent.
“There’s a lot going through our heads right now,” Burtschi said. “We knew we always could find a way to win at home. We knew tonight if we didn’t come with it, we’d get beat. We were up by 11 and we let them crawl back in it. We made some defensive mistakes.”
BRIGHAM YOUNG (22-7, 12-3 MWC)
Young 6-11 0-1 12, Plaisted 3-6 4-5 10, Ainge 5-9 0-0 14, Balderson 4-8 1-4 11, Cummard 2-4 1-2 5, Rose 1-1 0-0 3, Burgess 1-3 0-0 2, Murdock 0-0 0-0 0, Tavernari 2-5 0-0 5. Totals 24-47 6-12 62.
AIR FORCE (23-7, 10-6)
Burtschi 6-11 2-3 15, Nwaelele 4-12 4-5 14, Welch 1-2 2-2 4, McCraw 1-5 0-0 2, Anderson 5-9 2-4 15, Teets 1-3 0-0 3, Johnson 2-2 1-1 5, Frye 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-44 11-15 58.
Halftime – Air Force 32-30. 3-point goals – BYU 8-14 (Ainge 4-6, Balderson 2-2, Rose 1-1, Tavernari 1-3, Cummard 0-2); Air Force 7-18 (Anderson 3-4, Nwaelele 2-5, Teets 1-1, Burtschi 1-4, Welch 0-1, McCraw 0-3). Fouled out – Johnson. Rebounds – BYU 29 (Ainge 6, Young 6); Air Force 25 (Frye 5). Assists – BYU 11 (Ainge 5); Air Force 13 (Nwaelele 4, Welch 4). Total fouls – BYU 18, Air Force 18. A – 6,146.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
Salute to seniors
Air Force’s most successful senior class played for the final time at home Tuesday night. What the seniors accomplished at Clune Arena is pretty impressive, losing only twice there in four years – Feb. 19, 2005, to Utah and Tuesday to BYU:
2003-04 – 13-0
2004-05 – 12-1
2005-06 – 15-0
2006-07 – 13-1
