Women’s Basketball Opens Road Week at Utah State

Air Force Women's Basketball, in the first of two road stops this week, takes on Utah State at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Wednesday at 11 a.m. MT.

Follow Along:
Wednesday's game at Utah State will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network and available for viewership free of charge; XtraSports AM 1300 will be broadcast live from Clune Arena with Ryan Kaufman on the courtside call; Live stats/scoring will be provided via StatBroadcast; Links to each can be found on the women's basketball schedule page on goairforcefalcons.com.

The Series:
Currently 12-14 in the all-time series with Utah State, the Falcons have won seven-straight over the Aggies and seek out their fourth-consecutive win in Logan.

Falcons at a Glance:
Junior Milahnie Perry and senior Madison Smith both lead Falcon scoring, averaging 16.2 and 13.8 points per game.

Sophomore Jayda McNabb, while also averaging 8.1 points per game, leads Air Force in rebounding, averaging 7.2 (3.8 OFF/G, 3.5 DEF/G). McNabb's 3.8 offensive rebounds per game currently ranks 22nd nationally and leads the Mountain West.

Senior point guard Jo Huntimer's 4.3 assists per game and 2.82 assist/ turnover ratio (12th in the nation) both rank second in the Mountain West.

Defensively, Air Force tops the Mountain West in turnovers forced per game (20.64, 28th nationally), turnover margin (+6.28, 25th nationally) and steals per game (11.1, 31st nationally). Madison Smith, sporting 62 steals on the season and averaging 2.48 per contest, leads the Mountain West. Three of Air Force's starting five (Smith, Huntimer, McNabb) rank top eight in steals against the Mountain West with no other program in the league sporting more than one.

In Mountain West games, McNabb's 1.15 blocks per game ranks fifth among conference competitors.

A Historic Start...
Air Force opened Mountain West play in 2024-25 at 10-2, marking its first ever 10-win non-conference in Air Force's Division I history and the first such occurrence since the 1991-92 season. Starting 9-1 on the year with just an overtime loss at Army (Nov. 15), Air Force got off to its best ten-game start since Maj. Danny Fowler's 1982-83 Falcons went 12-1. The Falcons opened 6-0 in Clune Arena for the first time since 1985-86, when Air Force started at home with seven-straight wins.

And Historic Finish?
At 14-11, Air Force is battling toward its best finish in the program's Division I history (19-14); Head coach Stacy McIntyre is three wins short of tying the most by a head coach in their first season at Air Force (17), a title currently shared by then-Capt. Chuck Holt (1979-80) and then-Capt. Danny Fowler (1981-82).

A Cool Grand:
Combining for 53 points at San Jose State (Jan. 11), Smith and Perry both eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for their respective careers, becoming the 19th and 20th players to do so in Air Force history, and the fourth-such duo to collectively claim the honor in the same season.

Service Before Self:
Jo Huntimer leads Air Force in total assists (107), while currently sporting the second-best assist average in Mountain West play this season (4.3). 378 career assists currently ranks second in Air Force DI history and sixth all-time (451, Briana Autrey-Thompson, 2018-22) - a spot in the record books secured in the Falcons' win over Milwaukee on Nov. 28 in Puerto Rico.

Rounding into Form:
Through the Falcons' last seven games, sophomore guard Keelie O'Hollaren is averaging .458 (27-59) shooting from the field and .461 (18-39) from three-point range.

Winning Trends:
Air Force has ...
- Held 13 of 14 opponents to less than 70 points (16 consecutive win streak snapped in win at CSU on Feb. 1) in all wins this season;
- Forced more turnovers than 13 of 14 opponents (17 consecutive win streak snapped at CSU on Feb. 1) in wins this season ;
- Scored more points off of turnovers than opponents in all 14 wins this season;
- Led in the game with five minutes to go in all 14 wins this season (61 consecutive wins in regulation).

Air Force is Undefeated When...
- Leading home opponents at halftime (7-0);
- Scoring 70 or more in Clune (7-0);
- Out-shooting home opponents from the field (5-0) and from three-point range (6-0).

Completing the Mission:
Since Dec. 21, 2021, Air Force has only lost two games after holding a lead with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Both losses took place in overtime, falling that day in double overtime at UTEP, and dropping a 57-51 contest to Army at West Point on Nov. 15 of this season.

Not including overtime games, Air Force has won 61 consecutive contests ending in regulation after holding a lead at the five-minute mark in the fourth quarter.

An Even Dozen:
Air Force has at least 12 steals in 14 of 25 games in 2024-25. The Falcons' streak of six-straight contests with 12 or more takeaways to open 2024-25 was the longest active streak in Division I at the time.

Last Time Out:
They went down big and rallied late, but the Air Force Women's Basketball team was unable to overcome its early deficit, falling in the final seconds, 65-58, to Colorado State in Clune Arena on Saturday.

Junior Milahnie Perry led all scoring for the game, earning 15 points (5- 16 FG, 3-6 FT, 3 REB, 1 BLK) and senior Madison Smith added 14 (4-10 FG, 2-5 3FG, 4-6 FT, 5 REB, 4 STL). Sophomore Keelie O'Hollaren put up nine points.

Senior Jo Huntimer and sophomore Jayda McNabb, while adding eight and seven points, respectively, both contributed 10 rebounds on the way to a season high for Air Force in boards while out-rebounding CSU in the process.

Air Force (14-11, 4-9 MW), after a back-and-forth, one-possession first quarter, were outscored by CSU 22-8 in the second, leaving the Falcons to work in a deficit through the second half of Saturday. The Falcons, down by as much as 17 in the fourth, made a furious comeback that saw them down by just a single possession in the final minutes, but Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year Emma Ronsiek was able to close out the game for Colorado State.

Five Falcons scored points in the opening quarter, as Air Force and CSU battled through five lead changes, ending an 18-17 Air Force lead after the first ten minutes.

Early in the second quarter, the Falcons built up a 21-17 lead, as Huntimer hitched possession over to Smith in the right corner for her second three-pointer of the game, but CSU was able to tie and eventually retake the lead. A 13-0 run by the Rams got CSU out to a 34-24 advantage, before a Huntimer floater along the left baseline broke a six-minute dry spell for Air Force. A corner three for CSU's Hannah Simental in the final seconds of the half left the Falcons down 39-26 at the break.

After spending the third quarter down by double digits and falling behind 57-40 early in the fourth, Air Force rallied behind its defense, holding CSU to 3-8 shooting from the field the rest of the way and allowing the Falcons to put up a 16-2 run. Colorado State, the nation's leader in limiting turnovers and the only program in the country to average less that 10 per game, was forced into five turnovers in the fourth quarter, as Smith and McNabb combined for five steals and generating nine points in the process. Down 59-53 with 2:25 to go, Huntimer sunk her second three-pointer of the game from the right wing to pull Air Force back within a possession.

On the resulting CSU possession, Ronsiek found the Falcon basket on a left-side drive, leaving the Falcons down 61-56 with a minute to go and effectively stalling Air Force's final push for a lead.

Women’s Basketball Opens Road Week at Utah State

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Players Mentioned

Jo Huntimer

Jayda McNabb

Keelie O'Hollaren

Milahnie Perry

Madison Smith

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