Air Force falls at home by blowing double-digit lead

The final minute of Air Force’s loss to TCU might have contained a decent bit of bad luck, but that doesn’t excuse the Falcons for giving away a big second-half lead.

Air Force, riding the wave of a two-game winning streak, led by 10 in the second half. The Falcons led by eight with less than 8 minutes to go Wednesday. Then they scored only three points over the next 6 minutes as TCU chipped away at the lead.

The 65-62 loss to TCU at Clune Arena kept Air Force from its first three-game conference winning streak since 2007.

“With 3 minutes to go, that’s when it started to unravel a little bit, which is kind of disheartening for us because that’s what we’re trying to improve on, finishing games,” forward Mike Fitzgerald said. “To have a 10-point lead and lose by three, it’s a tough loss.”

Air Force had plenty of reasons it couldn’t maintain a big lead. Guard Michael Lyons being mostly shut down by TCU, scoring just nine points. The Falcons had eight second-half turnovers. The biggest problem was that the Falcons allowed 22 offensive rebounds and 25 second-chance points. Still, Lyons’ fadeaway baseline jumper in the final minute gave Air Force a 62-60 lead.

Air Force might wonder how it didn’t win the game after that. Taylor Broekhuis got a huge block, his sixth of the game. But the ball went out of bounds and TCU kept possession. Then Fitzgerald got another block. But Air Force couldn’t corral the rebound. Instead of the Falcons holding the ball, Amric Fields hit a 3-pointer to give TCU a lead with 18 seconds left.

“If you block those shots and maybe you get the bounce, now they’re fouling and you go down to the other end,” Air Force coach Dave Pilipovich said. “Now the complexion of the game is a little different.”

Air Force called timeout and drew up a double screen for Lyons. The play worked to perfection, as Lyons drove to the basket. But he missed a shot, Justin Hammonds — who hit 8-of-9 shots and had a career-best 17 points — missed, and then Lyons tried to tip it to the basket to no avail. It appeared TCU made contact on all three attempts, but Air Force didn’t get the call. TCU made a couple of free throws, Broekhuis missed a surprisingly open look at a 3-pointer at the buzzer, and TCU got the win. The Falcons are now 13-12 overall and 3-8 in the Mountain West.

TCU has some length and athleticism that bothered the Falcons, so even when Air Force was up 10 points, Pilipovich wasn’t entirely comfortable. Still, TCU’s late run was difficult to stomach.

“We knew it was coming,” Pilipovich said. “But — gosh — we just couldn’t hold onto it.”

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