AFA men's basketball: Falcons keep on rolling

Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds worried about his team being "stale" for Saturday's game against Texas-Pan American as it had been off for six days since its previous game.

But the layoff did nothing to cool off the Falcons, who picked up where they left off a week earlier at Northern Colorado.

Air Force, which scored on each of its last 14 possessions in the Dec. 6 victory over the Bears, hit eight of its first 10 shots against the Broncs to open up an early double-digit lead. The Falcons then built a commanding lead early in the second half and cruised to a 71-50 victory in front of an announced crowd of 2,021 at Clune Arena.

With the victory, Air Force extended its winning streak to a season-best four games and improved to 7-2.

"An emphasis for the majority of the practices was not being stale and staying focused the rest of the week because we were coming off a big win against Northern Colorado and that's something we wanted to bring in today's game," said sophomore guard Evan Washington, who had 11 points and five rebounds. "Even in this morning's shootaround we were focused, and I think it helped tonight."

The Falcons, who made a season-high 63.9 percent of their shots against Northern Colorado, continued their sharp shooting by making 28 of 54 (51.9 percent) against the Broncs (3-7).

In particular, Andrew Henke remained hot. The senior guard/forward scored a game-high 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting, including 5-of-10 from 3-point range, to match the career-high he set a week ago. Henke also pulled down a game- and season-high eight rebounds, had two assists and made just one turnover in a career-high 38 minutes.

"That's exactly what we want out of him," Reynolds said. "He's going to shoot the ball and make shots - we never worry about that. We want him to be stable on the defensive end and stable on the offensive end, and we're getting that out of him."

Eight players scored for Air Force, which tied its season-high with 18 assists.

"I think we shared the ball as well as any Air Force team that's played here and performed here since I've been here," Reynolds said.

Air Force scored on each of its last five possessions of the first half to take a 40-26 lead into the break.

Then, after halftime, the Falcons scored on four of their first six possessions to help ignite a game-clinching 17-8 run. Senior Matt Holland capped the run with a 3-pointer that gave Air Force a 57-34 lead with 11:15 to play.

The Falcons now have an eight-day break before their next game - Dec. 22 against Texas Southern.

Said freshman Trevor Noonan: "Hopefully we can take this time and get our finals knocked out and stay on track."

And, once again, avoid becoming stale.