Even with little slip, Stewart starts well

It took four games, but Air Force freshman forward Taylor Stewart finally acted his age.

In a 74-61 loss to Wofford on Sunday, Stewart struggled with his shooting for the first time in his short career, making just 1 of 6 shots from the floor and finishing with a season-low six points.

"He became a freshman again," Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said. "We forgot he was a freshman because he was playing so well."

Indeed, in Air Force's first three games, Stewart averaged 12.7 points on 13-for-20 shooting, pulled down 17 rebounds and made all five of his 3-point attempts.

Even with Sunday's freshman-esque performance, however, the 6-foot-5 Stewart has established himself as the Falcons' top reserve.

He's averaging 26.3 minutes - fifth-most on the team and the most of any reserve - and ranks fourth on the team in scoring (11 points per game) and second in rebounding (5.3)

"I'm very pleased with where he is right now," said Reynolds, whose team will get its biggest test to date tonight with a game at Stanford at 8:30.

How has Stewart - who came to the academy directly from high school - been able to make the biggest impact to date of the Falcons' highly regarded freshmen?

For one, his high school AAU team ran pieces of the Falcons' complicated offense, so he had some familiarity with it even without spending a year at the prep school.

"That gives me a pretty good leg up, because you get the mind-set of the offense and how it just flows into each piece," Stewart said.

In addition, he worked hard in the offseason, spending three weekends at the Suwanee Sports Academy, where he received shooting and ball-handling instruction from former NBA guard Mark Price and longtime college and high school coach Bruce Kreutzer.

Finally, Stewart played at a highly competitive level in high school in basketball-crazy Kentucky. That probably helps account for what Reynolds considers some of Stewart's top strengths - basketball "savvy" and "a real good feel for how to play."

At Lexington Catholic, Stewart was a four-year letter-winner. He averaged 17.7 points and 5.7 rebounds his senior year and helped lead his team to the semifinals of the Kentucky State Tournament. There are no classifications in Kentucky - just one tournament for all schools - and from the round of 16 on games are played at Rupp Arena.

"He probably had as good a background as most guys we could get," Reynolds said.