Air Force Wins 72-69 Overtime Thriller Over Fresno State

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. - Air Force men's basketball defeated Fresno State, 72-69, in overtime in Mountain West play Saturday afternoon at Clune Arena. Freshman Will Cooper led the Falcons with 21 points and sophomore Luke Kearney hit the go-ahead three in overtime.

Trailing 69-67 with under a minute in overtime, Ethan Taylor whipped a pass into the left corner to Kearney, who connected on the three to put the Falcons ahead 70-69 with 34 seconds to play.

On the ensuring Fresno State possession, Cooper blocked Elijah Price's shot attempt and the Falcons got the ball on the dead ball rebound with 17 seconds to play. Air Force then got a huge bucket on the inbounds play, as Jeffrey Mills sent a pass over the Bulldog defense, to a wide open Ethan Taylor, who scored the layup to put the Falcons ahead by three with nine seconds to play.

Fresno State missed a field goal with two seconds left and had a final attempt called off at time expired and Air Force snapped its 16-game losing streak.

Cooper led three Falcons in double-figures with a career-high's for points and three's made with six. Kearney added 19 points, with 16 coming after the first half. Kearny scored seven of Air Force's 11 points in overtime, finishing with three made three's and three assists. Jeffrey Mills was the third Falcon in double figures with 13 points. Mills hit three three's, adding four rebounds.

Taylor led the Falcons with eight rebounds and eight assists. Chase Beasley made his first start of the season for the Falcons, recording three points, four rebounds and four assists in 22 minutes.

Fresno State, which was down to just seven available players for the game, had four players in double figures scoring. Brian Amuneke led the Bulldogs with 18 points. Price and Alex Crawford both notched double-doubles with both scoring 14 points and pulling down 11 rebounds.

Air Force made 15 three's on the day, one shy of its season high. The Falcons also had 20 assists, its most in a MW game this season. The Falcon bench out-scored Fresno State's 26-0.

It was a contrast of styles in the first-half, as Fresno State went to the break with a 32-31 lead. The Bulldogs did its damage inside, holding a 20-2 advantage in points in the paint. Air Force, meanwhile had nine made three's, out of its 10 field goals, in the first half.

In the second half, the game was a back-and-forth battle with no lead bigger than six points. Fresno State got up by four points early, before the Falcons would retake the lead. After several back-and-forth lead changes, the Falcons went up by sixth with 4:35 to play.

Fresno State closed out regulation on a 9-3 run to send the game to overtime.

Air Force returns to action Tuesday, Feb. 25, hosting Colorado State. The game tips at Clune Arena at 7 pm MT and will be broadcast on Altitude and streamed on the MWN.

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