Air Force Academy – Jacob Burtschi scored 13 points, including the winning basket with 7.7 seconds left to send Air Force to the NIT semifinals with a 52-51 win over DePaul on Wednesday night.
Draelon Burns, who scored 18 points and had five 3-pointers, rimmed out a 3-pointer at the buzzer after Burtschi missed a free throw following his layup, and the usually subdued crowd at Clune Arena stormed the court, their Falcons headed to the NIT Final Four and “New York, New York” playing over the loud speakers.
The Falcons (26-8), the top-seeded team in the West, play South Region top seed Clemson in the semifinals on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Matt McCraw also scored 13 points for the Falcons, who nearly saw their 33-game home winning streak against nonconference opponents snapped.
