Air Force blown out for second straight game as Colorado State rolls

FORT COLLINS • Air Force has a week to fix whatever has gone wrong the past couple games.

The Falcons were competitive for the first 19 games this season. They almost beat UNLV, then the 12th-ranked team in the nation, just a week ago. Now, they have to ask themselves serious questions about where the rest of the season is headed.

Air Force lost 67-49 to Colorado State at Moby Arena on Saturday, trailing by as many as 24 points in the second half. That came off a 39-point loss to New Mexico on Tuesday.

Air Force looked like a team lacking confidence, as it lost for the sixth straight time. The Falcons are 1-6 in Mountain West play and 11-10 overall. Frustration boiled over in the second half, when Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds picked up his second technical foul and was ejected for the first time as Falcons coach.

The Falcons don’t play again until next Saturday against Boise State.

“We really need to learn from these games and we need to start moving on and start winning games,” forward Mike Fitzgerald said. “This isn’t the team we had. We have a talented team this year. We all want to have a good second half of the season, we just have to make it happen.”

Nobody on the Falcons’ side said they had a problem with the team’s effort, but Air Force did allow Rams forward Pierce Hornung to get just about every loose ball. At the point Hornung checked out of the blowout, he had 17 rebounds — and the Falcons as a team had 21.

Hornung had nine offensive rebounds (the Falcons had two) and 23 points. Hornung’s 17 rebounds were the most by one player against Air Force since Corey Lamkin grabbed 18 for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2004. Hornung isn’t a huge player that the Falcons can’t match up against. He’s just 6-foot-5, but wanted every board.

“I didn’t think we came out flat, I thought Pierce Hornung — while I was out there – played very well,” Reynolds said.

In Air Force’s defeats before this week, the games were usually close until the end. That wasn’t the case against New Mexico and it wasn’t the case against the Rams. Colorado State led 27-20 at halftime, but it would have been a wider margin had the Rams shot better than 34.6 percent from the floor. Air Force started the game cold on offense, and it never turned around. When the Falcons started the second half cold as well, the Rams opened up a huge lead and put the game away.

Reynolds said he thought his team was inconsistent, and didn’t finish defensive possessions well. Now in a six-game losing streak, there’s some worry about the team regressing at this point in the season.

“I’m concerned,” Reynolds said. “Who wouldn’t be?”
—
Contact Frank Schwab: 476-4891
Twitter @GazetteAirForce
Facebook Gazette Frank Schwab