Men's basketball: Falcons drop 2nd straight at home

Midway through the second half of Saturday night's Mountain West Conference opener against San Diego State, Air Force senior forward Matt Holland tipped in a miss in transition to tie the game and ignite the crowd at Clune Arena.

But there wasn't much for which the fans could cheer thereafter, and as the final seconds of the Falcons' 61-44 loss expired, what was left of the announced crowd of 2,564 barely made a sound.

Calling it stunned silence would be a stretch. But Air Force still isn't used to losing at home. And the loss to the Aztecs was the Falcons second in a row at Clune Arena and third this season on the floor where they went 68-6 the previous five seasons.

Air Force fell to 9-5 with the loss, its third in its past four games. The Falcons next play Saturday at New Mexico. San Diego State, which snapped a five-game losing streak at the academy, improved to 11-3.

"Our guys are self-motivated," Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said when asked how he'd pick up his team. "Right now they're not down. They know that we've got 15 games left and this is the first conference game. The tough thing about it is we've lost a couple here in a row at home - and they're not used to that."

Air Force shot poorly from the floor, making 16 of 50 shots (32 percent). The Falcons missed 20 of 26 shots after halftime, including all eight of their 3-point attempts and three layups early in the half.

Still, when Holland (game-high 17 points) soared to the basket in transition to tip in Anwar Johnson's miss with 12:18 to play, Air Force had tied the score at 36. And after a San Diego State miss, Air Force had a chance to take the lead.

But Andrew Henke's 3-pointer from the left side bounced high off the rim, and San Diego State went on a 9-0 run to re-establish control. The Aztecs, who had missed nine of their first 10 shots in the second half, scored three points on three straight possessions, getting a 3-point play from sophomore Billy White and then back-to-back 3-pointers from D.J. Gay.

Down 49-41, Air Force had three shots to cut into the deficit, but missed all of them. The Falcons missed five more shots in a row as San Diego State put the game away.

"It kind of felt like we had a good run there and they kind of pushed through and we kind of faded," Holland said. "Coach said it looked like we kind of ran out of gas a little bit."