AIR FORCE ACADEMY — With a barrage of 13 3-pointers, the New Mexico Lobos turned Air Force’s Clune Arena into their own shooting gallery Wednesday night.
The Lobos (17-3, 3-2 Mountain West Conference) handed the Falcons (8-9, 0-4) a 73-50 defeat, Air Force’s 20th consecutive regular-season loss in conference play.
New Mexico made 13-of-27 3-pointers to Air Force’s 3-for-24, a 30-point advantage.
“That’s a big difference,” New Mexico coach Steve Alford said. “We’ve had to grind a little bit over the last couple of weeks, but tonight we made some shots and when we do that, I think we’re pretty good.”
Phillip McDonald was the biggest nemesis to the Falcons, hitting 7-of-10 3-pointers and scoring a game-high 25 points. Nate Garth was 4-for-4 off the bench for 12 points.
It was back-to-back 3-pointers by McDonald that fueled New Mexico’s 13-4 run at the beginning of the second half that pushed the Lobos’ lead to 44-28 with 17:02 remaining.
“We tried to make some defensive changes on the fly,” said Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds, whose team got no closer than 14 points the rest of the way. “We gave them too many open looks.”
Air Force guard Evan Washington finished with a team-high 16 points.
“I wanted to be more aggressive from the start,” Washington said. “I have to say I was frustrated at times. We have a young team and I have to get through it and to the next play.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
