Air Force Academy
TCU
Falcons Fall to TCU In Close Game, 57-54
1/17/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2009
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) - Grant Parker's 3-point, game-tying attempt rimmed out at the buzzer as visiting TCU won for the first time in five tries at Clune Arena with a 57-54 win over Air Force Saturday.
Parker grabbed the rebound off a 3-point miss by Matt Holland and heaved the potential game-tying shot but missed. The Falcons put in a great effort but could not tie the Horned Frogs in this extremely close game.
Air Force used a 15-4 run, fueled by two free throws following a technical foul on TCU's Zvonko Buljan and a 3-pointer by Holland with 5:58 remaining, to take a 48-45 lead. The game went back and forth from there.
The Falcons led 52-48 with 3:18 left, but TCU's Jason Ebie hit a layup with 2:56 left and Kevin Langford scored on a putback to tie the score at 52-all with 1:54 remianing.
Anwar Johnson hit two free throws to give Air Force a 54-52 lead with 1:37 left, but TCU took a 55-54 lead on a three-point play by Buljan with 1:12 remaining. Parker missed two free throws that could have given Air Force the lead with 44 seconds left. TCU took the three-point lead on a layup by Jason Ebie with 13 seconds remaining.
Johnson scored a game-high 19 points and led the Falcons with six rebounds. Andrew Henke added 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field. Buljan led the Frogs with 18 points and a game-high 11 points.
Air Force Post-Game Notes
-- Air Force is 0-4 in conference play for the first time since the 2000-01 season
-- Air Force's 55.6 percent from the field in the first half was the best in one half since shooting 56.3 percent in the first half against Stony Brook on Dec. 31
-- Air Force lost for the first time this season when shooting better than 33.3 percent from three-point range (9-1)
-- Air Force has lost five consecutive games for the first time since the 2002-03 campaign (Feb. 17 - March 3)
-- Grant Parker started the first game of his career
-- Andrew Henke and Evan Washington each tied his career-high with four assists
-- Henke scored in double figures for the first time in five games (last time: 10 vs. Dartmouth)
Post-Game Quotes
TCU Head Coach Jim Christian:
"Guys did a great job making up for plays. There were, I think, three plays in a row where we just didn't do what we were supposed to do ... coming out of the timeout and Air Force made us pay for it. But at the end of the game, all three guys who blew their assignment made a play to get the win. That's what you have to teach the team. The guys have to understand, first of all, you have to be focused, obviously, to play a good basketball team like Air Force at key possessions. But then you also have to find a way to win the game."
"We missed a couple good open shots and then to turn the ball over a little bit during that time, you know. There were a couple of unforced ones, a couple of dribbling off your foot, but those things happen. You just have to take your hats off to Air Force. I knew that they would play very well tonight, after one of their worst losses, so I knew that coming in and I think that we responded and rose to the challenge, as well."
"Every victory is good on the road. Especially for a team that hasn't had that much experience on the road, so coming into a tough environment, where you knew they were going to play well. They are a very hard team to guard. It's a very hard system to guard because everyone has to be very disciplined and they make you go into a clock, so we got some very big stops when we needed to get them. It helped that we played Colorado early in the year. That helped us tonight, because they play the same way, so you've at least played somebody who plays that way. Even with all that, though, they are so good at their stuff that it's hard to simulate that in practice, so there is almost a special preparation for them."
Air Force Head Coach Jeff Reynolds:
"I thought our kids played very hard. I thought we had good energy tonight, we just didn't execute very confidently when we needed to and we didn't get stops when we needed to."
"We didn't change much (defensively in the second half). We just had some things not go our way in the first half. Ebie doesn't hit the three very well usually and hit two big threes. If that doesn't happen it's different. You have to tip your hat to them, they are well coached and played well when they needed to."
"We had a play called during the (previous) timeout and if we take a timeout it gives their defense a chance to set up."
Air Force Senior Andrew Henke:
"We put ourselves in a position to win the game. We had some opportunities in the last four or five minutes and they battled back and got the win. We executed our offense and made some tough plays. We just need to do it for 40 minutes. This is pretty hard to take."
