Women’s Basketball Goes Wire-to-Wire With CSU, Falls in Final Seconds

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – Late game heroics had Air Force Women's Basketball within three points of a lead with four seconds to play on Wednesday night against Colorado State, but the Falcons were unable to overcome, as Air Force fell, 65-63, to the Rams in Clune Arena.

Senior Milahnie Perry closed the evening with a game high 31 points on 12-21 shooting and 3-4 from three-point range to reset her career high. The Falcon captain's performance was good for securing fifth all time in Air Force career scoring while tying the most points tallied by a player in the Mountain West this season to date.

Junior Keelie O'Hollaren, going 5-8 from the field and 3-6 from three-point territory finished with 16 points, securing her third double-digit performance in as many games and fourth-straight game to shoot .455 or better from three.

Air Force and CSU were tied at 15-all at the close of the first quarter. Perry scored all of the Falcons' first 13 points in the first eight minutes of play time. A shooting foul from CSU's Marta Leimane and the resulting free throws from senior Emily Adams (8 PTS, 3-5 FG, 2-2 FT, 5 REB) evened the score after the first 10 minutes.

Opening the second quarter, CSU crept ahead to lead 26-19 at the under-five timeout after an 11-2 start to the period. A Perry driving and-one and Adams baskets on back-to-back possessions amassed a 7-0 Falcon response to pull Air Force back within a basket with just over a minute remaining in the half. A jumper from CSU's Kloe Froebe at the 0:59 mark left Air Force down 31-28 headed into the locker room.

Air Force turnovers proved costly in the third quarter. A pair of takeaways by the Rams proved the start of an 11-2 CSU run, buying the Rams their largest lead of the game at 42-30 with 3:41 remaining in the quarter. Momentum swung back in Air Force's favor, as Perry and O'Hollaren outscored Colorado State 8-1 inside the final three minutes of the frame. The Falcon tandem pulled Air Force back to a 43-38 deficit entering the final quarter.

Perry and O'Hollaren accounted for 19 of Air Force's 25 points in the fourth quarter. The pair led a fourth-quarter Air Force effort which saw the Falcons go 5-6 from three-point range and pull the game with within a single possession five separate times, but CSU managed to answer each challenge.

With 1:08 to go, junior Alexis Cortez found the tying basket on a left-corner three but was called out of bounds. Cortez found her mark on an open look with four seconds to go in the game, pulling the Falcons back within a possession at 65-63.

CSU, advancing the ball after a timeout, aimed to eat up the final four seconds to secure the win, but junior Marissa Hargrave took possession of the ball and a quick timeout bought Air Force one final look at the CSU basket with 0.4 remaining in regulation.

On the final possession of the game, Hargrave looked to find Air Force for a quick shot off the inbound pass but was blocked by CSU's Caitlyn Kramer to seal the final score.

The Falcons (8-9, 2-5 MW) bested Colorado State (14-4, 5-2 MW) in rebounds (29), assists (eight), field goal percentage (.480, season high), three-point percentage (.470), three-pointers made (eight), free throw percentage (.750) and bench points (19).

Up Next:
Air Force Women's Basketball takes on the Wyoming Cowgirls in Laramie on Saturday, Jan. 17 in Arena Auditorium.

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