Air Force hosts Boise State in regular season finale
3/2/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
THE GAME
Air Force closes out the regular season by hosting Boise State Saturday, March 4, at 2 p.m. MT in Clune Arena at the Academy. It's Fan Appreciation/Senior game is presented by USAA. Air Force men's basketball senior players will be honored pregame. Fans are encouraged to wear blue. Rollabannas, pom poms, foam fingers and many other prizes will be handed out. The team will also be sticking around postgame to sign autographs.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Internet:...... ROOT Sports (Drew Goodman, Sed Bonner, Jenny Cavnar)
Radio:............ KVOR AM 740 (Jim Arthur, Dan Acheson)
THE BREAKDOWN
Quick Facts Air Force Boise State
Overall Record:... 11-19....................................... 18-10
MW Record:......... 4-13......................................... 11-6
Streak:.................. L 2............................................ L 1
Last Game:........... L 38-51 at San Diego St......... L 67-74 vs. Fresno State
Conference:......... Mountain West ..................... Mountain West
Nickname:............ Falcons.................................... Broncos
Location:............... Colorado Springs, CO............ Boise, ID
Website:............... GoAirForceFalcons.com....... BroncoSports.com
THE COACHES
Category Air Force Boise State
Head Coach.......... Dave Pilipovich...................... Leon Rice
Alma Mater.......... Thiel College, 1986............... Washington St., 1986
School Record...... 71-92 (5th season)................ 140-85 (7th season)
Career Record..... Same........................................ Same
THE SERIES
Overall.............. Boise State leads 8-4
First Meeting... Dec. 27, 1991 at Boise State* (Boise State, 77-68)
Albertson's Classic tournament, Boise, ID
Last Meeting... Feb. 11, 2017 at Boise State (Boise State, 76-66)
Streaks.............. Boise State W 1
THE SERIES
Air Force and Boise State are meeting for the 13th time overall and 12th time as conference foes. Boise State leads the overall series, 8-4, and has a 7-4 mark in conference games. Air Force is 3-2 at home, 1-5 in Boise and 0-1 in neutral site games. Air Force won the lone meeting between the two last season, beating Boise State 61-53, at the Academy. Boise State defeated Air Force, 76-66, earlier this season in Boise. The teams first played in the Albertson's Classic in Boise on Dec. 27, 1991 resulting in a Boise State victory, 77-68.
EARLIER THIS SEASON
Feb. 11, 2017 at Boise State
Justinian Jessup and Paris Austin had 14 points apiece on Saturday, and Boise State scored 13 straight points down the stretch to power past Air Force 76-66.
The Broncos led for most of the game but trailed in parts of the second half and were down by one with 7:18 left.
Chandler Hutchison's pair of free throws with 3:44 left capped a 13-0 run that made it 72-60. The Falcons answered with four straight points but got no closer from there.
Boise State moved a half-game ahead of Nevada (8-3) and stayed a half-game ahead of Colorado State (9-4) for first place in the conference standings.
Hutchison finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season. David Wacker added 10 points.
Hayden Graham led Air Force with 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Zach Kocur added 14 points and Lavelle Scottie scored 11.
LAST TIME AT AIR FORCE
Feb. 6, 2016 at USAFA
CJ Siples scored a career-high 25 points to lead Air Force past Boise State, 61-53, in Clune Arena.
Siples, who started his second straight game at point guard for the injured Trevor Lyons, eclipsed his previous career high of 15 points in the first half. He finished hitting eight of 11 shots and posting career highs of four 3-pointers, seven rebounds and three steals to pace the Falcons.
Air Force used a 12-0 run midway through the first half to build a 25-15 lead, but Boise State out-scored Air Force 16-5 from there to take a 31-30 halftime lead. The Broncos scored the first four points of the second half to take a 35-30 lead just 90 seconds in. The Falcons took the lead for good when Zach Kocur hit his lone field goal of the game, a 3-pointer with 13:36 left to make it 40-39. Air Force build the lead to as many as nine points, the last time coming at 9:23 remaining to make it 50-41. The closest Boise State got after that was three points, 56-53, with 2:26 left, but the Falcons scored the final five points to secure the win.
Air Force hit 43.2 percent from the field, including a 62.5 clip in the second half, while holding Boise State to just 35.2 percent. Air Force also out-rebounded the Broncos, 39-33, while holding them to their season low in scoring. Frank Toohey added nine points and seven rebounds for Air Force while Hayden Graham chipped in with eight points, four rebounds and three assists.
FINAL HOME GAME FOR SENIORS
Saturday will mark the final home game for four seniors. Their career fields and first assignments are listed below:
Acquisitions at Wright Patterson AFB, OH
Study Skills Instructor at USAFA, CO
Pilot Training at Laughlin AFB, TX
- Maya Woody (manager)
Personnel at Moody AFB, GA
AIR FORCE'S LAST GAME
Senior Matt Shrigley made two clutch 3-pointers in the final eight minutes and junior guard Trey Kell had a career-high 12 rebounds to lead San Diego State to a 51-38 victory over Air Force in a Mountain West game in San Diego March 1.
There wasn't a double-digit scorer until Air Force's Frank Toohey made two free throws with 2:56 left. He finished with 12 points.
Malik Pope scored on SDSUs next possession to give him 11 points. Shrigley had 10 for three-time defending regular-season champion SDSU.
SDSU shot only 28.8 percent (17 of 59) and Air Force 25 percent (11 of 44). Air Force went 12 1/2 minutes without scoring, spanning the last 10 minutes of the first half and the first 2 1/2 of the second.
Still, the Falcons were able to tie it at 27 on a reverse layup by Lavelle Scottie with 12:27 to go.
SDSU regained the lead and pushed it to double digits with Shrigley's two 3-pointers and two clutch shots by another senior, D'Erryl Williams, who had a jumper in the key and a basket off the rebound of Kell's missed 3-pointer.
The Aztecs led 22-13 at halftime after missing their first 10 shots, including six from 3-point range, before Kell finally hit a 3-pointer more than six minutes into the game.
