AIR FORCE ACADEMY — Coach Steve Alford knew where the New Mexico Lobos had to turn up the throttle Wednesday night when they needed a lift in the second half to get past Air Force at Clune Arena.
“It was our seniors again,” Alfred said after his Lobos (16-9, 7-3 Mountain West Conference) ran away from an Air Force upset bid to a 76-66 victory Wednesday night in Clune Arena.
“I think we had five points out of our seniors in the first half and 27 in the second half. We rely on them. Our young players are learning. But it’s a situation where we have to have our seniors perform and they did a nice job in the second half. I thought our defense picked it up in the second half and held them (Air Force) to 29 points after they shot 65 percent from the floor in the first half.”
New Mexico’s second half surge left the Falcons (9-14, 0-10) still searching for a first victory in the Mountain West Conference race. But unlike some of the previous setbacks, Air Force stayed hot in contention until the last eight minutes of the game.
But senior Tony Dandridge broke loose for five points and senior Chad Toppert sank a three-point field leading the Lobos to a commanding 70-60 lead with 3:51 to go.
Junior Roman Martinez picked up the pace and finished with his conference high of the season with 20 points.
But the Falcons had some things to talk about of their own. Senior Andrew Henke had his best conference game of the season with 19 points. Henke and senior Matt Holland helped regroup the Falcons after they fell behind 15-0 to start the game. Holland finished with 20 points and the two sharpshooters from long range gunned Air Force to a 37-33 lead at halftime.
“We know we can be good, but we haven’t been good for 40 minutes,” Henke said. “That’s been the story the last the last few games. We’ve been down 10-2, 10-0, 12-2 something like that in every game. I’ve been working hard in the gym the last two weeks. It paid off and the shots went down tonight.”
Besides shooting 65 percent from the floor in the first half and 52.4 for the game, Air Force outrebounded the Lobos 26-22. But they also were called for 26 fouls that gave New Mexico 36 free-throw attempts while hitting 23.
The Falcons also committed 16 turnovers to New Mexico’s nine.
“They battled back and it looked as if they were having fun out there tonight,” Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said. “Their press bothered us. I didn’t think the 16 turnovers were the difference in the game. I thought the difference was getting a critical stop or rebound when we needed it.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
