Air Force Fades Late In Loss To Texas Tech

The Air Force Falcons played great basketball for 27 minutes in Lubbock Sunday afternoon, but unfortunately for them basketball is a 40 minute game. The Texas Tech Red Raiders would surge from a 19 point deficit late in the second half to capture a 63-62 victory to raise their record to 4-1 on the season and drop the Falcons to 3-3 in the process.

Air Force was leading 46-27 with around 13 minutes remaining in the game, but would watch the Red Raiders go on a 25-10 run for the next eight minutes on the clock. The Falcons faced many of the same kind of problems in that run as they did in their other defeats to Army and Colorado. The Falcons don't defend well enough to overcome turnovers (18 on the day for Air Force) and poor shooting stretches. The Falcons would right the ship, responding to the big run by Texas Tech with a mini 6-1 spurt to get the lead to 62-53 with 2:30 left in the game. Air Force would not score another point the rest of the day, watching Texas Tech's leading scorer on the day Devaugntah Williams score seven of his 21 in the final two minutes of the game. Robert Turner would hit the winning free throw with 23 seconds left, and Air Force would miss two shots on consecutive possessions to watch the Red Raider comeback be sealed.

Max Yon would be the offensive highlight for Air Force, as he responded with 25 points on the day after being shut out by Colorado this past Tuesday. No other Falcon would score in double digits, which is becoming another problem for Air Force as they can't find the second consistent scorer to take some of the pressure off Yon when the offense becomes stagnant.

Air Force now has an important stretch of basketball games at home before the Mountain West Conference begins on December 31st. The Falcons face Grambling State on Wednesday in the first ever match-up between the two schools. The Falcons need to solve some problems with their defense as well as find some consistency in their offense over the next stretch of winnable games before they travel to San Diego to take on the Mountain West powerhouse San Diego State to open the conference season.