Air Force Takes on No. 7 Oregon Ducks

AIR FORCE vs. #7 OREGON: Air Force continues action on the road as the Falcons travel to Eugene, Oregon, to take on the seventh-ranked Oregon Ducks, Thursday, Dec. 20, at 11 a.m. PT, in Matthew Knight Arena. Thursday's game marks the first meeting between the programs.

UP NEXT: Air Force travels to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to take on conference front-runners, New Mexico, in the Mountain West Conference opener, Wednesday, Jan. 2. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. MT, in Dreamstyle Arena.

LAST TIME OUT: Air Force fell to Portland, 60-79, Tuesday evening in the Chiles Center. Sophomore guard Emily Conroe led the Falcons' in scoring with 10 points, while four other Falcons registered six points apiece. Conroe shot 5-9 from the field while freshman teammate Briana Autrey, who shot 3-4 from the field, had the best shooting percentage (75.0) on the game. Freshman forward Riley Snyder led the team with eight rebounds, tying her career-best mark, while adding two three-pointers to the scoresheet.

AIR FORCE AT A GLANCE: The Falcons are led Kaelin Immel and Briana Autrey who average 12.3 and 11.7 points per game, respectively. Immel is proving to be the team's hot-shot, shooting .419 from the field and .429 from down range. Immel spends more than half of every game on the court, averaging 29.2 minutes per game. Autrey consistently displays her skill on both sides of the ball, leading the team in steals (20) while maintaining her spot as the second-leading scorer. Autrey also has the best free throw shooting percentage on the team (.731).

Freshman forward Riley Snyder, who has started in nine of ten contests this season, averages 8.8 points per game, and notched a career-best 20-point performance against Navy. Snyder shoots .395 from beyond the arc, a three-point shooting percentage second only to Immel. Junior forward Kassady Huffman handles the majority of her business in the paint, leading the team with 7.5 boards per game and 17 blocks.

Air Force underclassmen make up the Falcons' top-four leading scorers; two if which are freshmen. It is not uncommon to see five freshmen on the court at any given time. Autrey and Snyder both average 20+ minutes per game. Of all of the players who have registered more than 100 minutes on the floor this season, seven are underclassmen, three are freshmen.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE DUCKS: Oregon averages an impressive 91.4 points per game with an astounding +27.7 scoring margin. The Ducks shoot .523 from the field and .414 from down range-- and you can expect them to drain their free throws as they shoot .863 from the line.

Sabrina Ionescu leads Oregon with a 21.0 points per game average while four other Ducks average double-figure scoring marks. Ionescu and teammate Ruthy Hebard collect the majority of the teams rebounds, averaging 7.8 and 8.1 rebounds per game, respectively.

OREGON'S LAST TGAME:
vs. No. 4 Mississippi State, 12/18
A battle between the two highest scoring teams in the nation turned into a slugfest Tuesday night, with No. 7 Oregon landing the heaviest blows to knock off No. 4 Mississippi State, 82-74, before 8,951 fans in a raucous Matthew Knight Arena.

Both teams shot at least 50 percent but neither reached its season scoring average, which was above 90 points per game for both the Ducks and Bulldogs. The game featured technical fouls on both head coaches, and a combined 50 free throws, with the Ducks battling to the line 28 times and missing just once.

The UO veterans led the way, with Maite Cazorla, Ruthy Hebard and Sabrina Ionescu combining for 63 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists. Cazorla set the early tone by getting to the basket three times in the first quarter despite McCowan's imposing presence, Hebard frustrated the MSU post on both ends of the floor, and Ionescu set a Pac-12 record by going a perfect 17-of-17 from the free-throw line.

Players Mentioned

Briana Autrey-Thompson

Emily Conroe

Kassady Huffman

Kaelin Immel

Riley Snyder

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