Air Force gets dominated in first game after Reynolds firing

Air Force’s players didn’t look any happier after Saturday night night’s 72-61 loss to Boise State.

Air Force surely played harder than it did last week, in Jeff Reynolds’ last two games before being fired Wednesday, but the Falcons didn’t play any better.

In the first meeting between the teams on Jan. 14, Air Force won at Boise State by 15 points. The Broncos hadn’t won a Mountain West game, hadn’t won a road game of any kind all season, and suspended their point guard and only senior starter, Westly Perryman, for the game.

In Dave Pilipovich’s debut as interim coach, the Falcons stumbled badly.

“We were all motivated to play,” forward Mike Fitzgerald said. “There’s no excuse for us losing.”

When athletic director Hans Mueh announced Reynolds has been fired, he said the players’ reaction was of “elation.” He said he could sense the players weren’t having any fun, and that point was driven home during a meeting early in the week with the players. The players did have a burst of energy to start the game, playing Boise State tough on defense. The problem was, the extra energy might have hurt the offense.

Air Force played in a rigid system under Reynolds, slowing down and being deliberate on most possessions. Pilipovich wanted Air Force to push the pace a bit, and the Falcons shot very early in the shot clock on a lot of possessions. In the first half, Air Force took 25 shots – 16 from behind the 3-point line and nine from within it. The Falcons made just 25 percent of those 3-pointers — compared to 56 percent of the 2-pointers — and had just 24 points at halftime.

Pilipovich said he thought the team had a long, emotional week, and it was trying a little bit too hard against Boise State.

“From an effort standpoint, we can’t fault them,” Pilipovich said. “Almost, I felt bad for them at times because they were pressing. We had timeouts and they came to the bench, and they wanted to do so well, and we said, ‘Relax, be yourself.’”

Air Force fell behind by as many as 20 points to the last-place team in the Mountain West, and trailed by double digits for the final 16:27 of the game.

Michael Lyons, who scored 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting, said he was mad at the way the Falcons played.

“I thought we would have come out here and played better,” said Lyons, who noted the Falcons had three good days of practice. “I just don’t know what’s going on right now. But I know we can fix it with the pieces we have right now.”