Falcon Women’s Hoops Upends Fresno State, 88-65

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Fresno St.	11	16	23	15	65
Air Force	18	23	25	22	88

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. - Air Force upended the Mountain West Conference regular season champions Fresno State, 88-65, handing the Bulldogs their first conference loss of the season and snapping their 14-game win streak. Air Force, who has now knocked off the league's top-two teams in the last two games, improves to 7-19 with a 5-10 mark in conference while the Bulldogs remain atop the MW at 22-5 with a 15-1 mark in conference play.

Air Force was led by Riley Snyder and Kaelin Immel who scored a game-high 22 points apiece. Snyder, who has scored 20 points or more in the last three games, shot a stellar 69-percent from the field (9-13) and 60-percent from three-point land (3-5). Immel notched her second-straight 20-point scoring performance while dishing out four assists and snagging five rebounds. Immel also knocked down a game-high six free throws. Both Snyder and Immel have six 20-point performances on the season.

Freshman guard Allyah Marlett led the Falcons off the bench with 10 points while shooting perfect from deep (2-2). The Air Force bench outscored the Fresno State bench, 20-11. Sophomore forward Haley Jones was big in the paint, collecting a game-high 10 rebounds while scoring six points and passing out four assists. The Falcons' key facilitator, Briana Autrey-Thompson, dished out a game high six assists and collected a career-best seven rebounds. She scored nine points for Air Force on the game. Emily Conroe rounded out the Falcons' double-digit scorers with 10 points while collecting seven rebounds and picking off a game-high three steals. Conroe was also perfect from the free throw line (4-4).

The Falcons handily out-rebounded the Bulldogs, 40-25, while picking off 11 steals. Air Force's defense held Fresno State 12 points shy of their season scoring average (77.0).

Fresno State was led by Haley Cavinder who scored 19 points in 40 minutes of action. Hanna Cavinder and Aly Gamez put up 15 and 13 points, respectively, and Maddi Utti picked up a team-high nine rebounds.

Fresno State gout out to an early lead, building a six point cushion 90 seconds into the game but Kaelin Immel responded with an 8-0 scoring run to take a 9-7 lead at the media timeout (3:31). By the end of the quarter, the Falcons built a seven-point lead behind Immel's seven first-quarter points while the squad shot 54-percent from the field.

Air Force rolled the momentum into the second quarter, maintaining a double-figure lead for the majority of the quarter. The Bulldogs came as close as three-points to the lead at the 7:48 mark, but a hot-shot Air Force team, led by Immel's second seven-point scoring run of the game, built an 11-point lead at the media timeout (4:27). The Falcons kept the pedal to the floor as they extended to their largest lead of the game, 41-27, at the halftime horn highlighted by Allyah Marlett's buzzer-beater three-ball at the close of the half. Air Force shot 56-percent from the field and from deep, and 80-percent at the free throw line (8-10). Fresno State shot 50-percent from the field but wasn't able to get their three-ball fired up, hitting just two-of-eight three-point attempts in the first half.

The Falcons continued to push the pace out of the halftime break, maintaining a double-digit lead through the media timeout (4:24) while building as much as 17-point scoring cushion at the 2:18 mark. At the end of the quarter, the Falcons led 66-50 behind Snyder's 17 points and Immel's 16 points.

It was much of the same story in the fourth quarter where the Falcons continued their rout of the league's top team, building a 25-point lead in the final minute of action for their largest lead of the game. At the final buzzer, Air Force led the game for 34 minutes and had their best night of shooting all season, hitting 52-percent from the field and 62-percent from deep. The win marked Air Force's first-ever against Fresno State in the 17-game series.

"This is always what we've had the potential to do," exclaimed head coach Chris Gobrecht. "Everyone played well tonight and when you get that kind of performance from everyone on the team, you're going to win the game. It feels so good to give our fans a win at home, they've stuck with us all year and went through a lot of heart-breaking losses with us and this just feels so good to be able to give them this kind of win."

"We've been working hard on the balance of being aggressive and being smart and we're going to continue learning and getting better."

Next up, Air Force hits the road to take on Wyoming in the first of a two-game road stint, Saturday (Feb. 22). The Falcons and Cowgirls will tip off at 2 p.m. in Arena-Auditorium, Laramie, Wyoming. Air Force looks to make even on the narrow 65-63 loss to Wyoming earlier this season (Dec. 4), at USAFA.

Falcon Women’s Hoops Upends Fresno State, 88-65

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Players Mentioned

Briana Autrey-Thompson

Emily Conroe

Kaelin Immel

Haley Jones

Allyah Marlett

Riley Snyder

Team Stats

Snyder Riley

Immel Kaelin

Conroe Emily

Marlett Allyah