Air Force Academy
Wake Forest
Falcons Trounce Demon Deacons, 94-58
11/29/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2006
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Skip Prosser looked to the heavens frequently for answers during a lopsided loss to Air Force. The Wake Forest coach couldn't find any.
"I tried everything," Prosser said. "It didn't make a difference."
Jacob Burtschi scored 21 points and Matt McCraw added 18 as Air Force cruised to a 94-58 victory over previously unbeaten Wake Forest Wednesday night.
"You can hope teams miss and make them miss," Prosser said. "We didn't do a very good job of that."
The numbers reflected that statement.
All five starters reached double figures. Nick Welch had 17 points and 10 rebounds for his first career-double-double, Tim Anderson had 13 and Dan Nwaelele 11 as Air Force (7-1) won its third straight.
The Falcons shot 60 percent from the field, were 11-for-23 on 3-pointers and never trailed after Burtschi's free throw put them ahead 10-9.
"I reminded our team to play within ourselves and play our game with offensive and defensive discipline," Air Force coach Jeff Bzdelik said. "When you don't care who shoots the basketball we have a chance to play with anybody and we have proved that."
Kyle Visser led Wake Forest (5-1) with 14 points, but had trouble getting the ball against a variety of zone defenses. He was also victimized by the backdoor cuts and motion offense that Air Force uses to wear down opponents.
"We practiced it before we came in here, but there's a lot to cover the way they run it," Visser said of the Air Force offense. "Take away something and something else is open."
Wake Forest had trouble with the motion offense and 3-point shooting of Air Force after Jamie Skeen's 3-pointer helped build a 7-0 lead. After Visser's layup with 16:24 left, the Demon Deacons were outscored 15-0, with Burtschi providing eight points of his 14 first half points.
Air Force, which was 6-for-9 on 3-pointers, got one each from McCraw and Anderson and outscored the Demon Deacons 13-4 over the final 3:50 of the half. The Falcons shot a sizzling 64 percent in the period, compared with Wake Forest's 29 percent, to lead 47-23 at the break.
Wake Forest got more of the same in the second half. Welch accounted for Air Force's first eight points of the period and after Burtschi's 3-pointer and McCraw's uncontested dunk, the Falcons' lead was 60-29.
The Demon Deacons didn't want to be reminded that the loss was the program's most lopsided non-conference loss in the modern era.
"That's for other people to talk about," Prosser said. "Let's leave it at they played infinitely better than we did."
