AFA men's basketball: McLain makes sudden impact

For most of Air Force's first eight games, junior center Mike McLain was a starter in name only.

He would begin games on the floor, but often be removed quickly. And despite starting each of the Falcons' first eight games, he averaged just 10 minutes - seven players averaged more.

But Saturday against Texas-Pan American, McLain made perhaps his biggest impact of the season. In 13 minutes, he scored a career-high six points on a pair of 3-pointers, had a career-high four rebounds, made two steals and had one assist.

Coach Jeff Reynolds also praised McLain for his stifling post defense on Texas-Pan American standout Emmanuel Jones.

"I thought I finally played pretty good," McLain said.

"I've never really been in this situation. But I'm thankful coach (Reynolds) has given me a lot of opportunities, and I'm also thankful I could give a little bit of that back to him and play better. This is just a building block. Just keep growing from it."

McLain entered the season having played just 5 minutes in his career.

Noonan excels
Freshman center Trevor Noonan played well off the bench Saturday, scoring seven points - including a powerful two-handed slam - and pulling down a career-high six rebounds.

"Every game I'm getting more confident," Noonan said.

Bz sighting
Former Air Force coach Jeff Bzdelik, now the coach at Colorado, sat in the upper deck during most of Saturday's game with his wife. Reynolds said he planned to have dinner with Bzdelik on Saturday night.

Etc.
Senior Andrew Henke made 5 of 10 3-pointers to continue a blistering pace - he has made 52.9 percent of his shots from beyond the 3-point arc. Henke has moved within striking distance of the academy's all-time record for career shooting percentage. His career mark now is 43.5, third all-time just behind Matt McCraw (46.5) and Dan Nwaelele (45.1). ... Air Force has made 35 of 67 3-pointers (52.2 percent) in its past four games.