Falcons' final surge wins basketball opener

Perhaps the biggest question facing the Air Force men’s basketball team heading into the 2009-10 season was who would score.

For at least one night, the Falcons have an answer.

Senior forward Grant Parker scored a career-high 26 points, and sophomore guard Evan Washington added 14 — including seven in the final 3 minutes — to help Air Force escape with a 65-54 victory over Division II Western State in front of an announced crowd of 2,835 Clune Arena.

“We’ve got to find two more guys besides Evan and Grant,” Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said. “We’ve got to do that. And hopefully it will come.”

Parker eclipsed his previous career high of 16 points in the first half, scoring 18 points on perfect 5-of-5 shooting from the floor. Air Force shot 14-of-25 as a team in the first half and went to the locker room leading, 38-27.

Parker hit a 3 just before the halftime buzzer, and the Falcons left the court appearing to be in complete control and ready to cruise to a confidence-inspiring victory over an inferior opponent.

But — as happened regularly during last season’s disastrous 17-game losing streak — they went ice cold in the second half and struggled mightily from the line. And Western State threatened to pull an embarrassing upset.

“At one point I think we were shooting 17 percent, and we got good looks,” Reynolds said. “And then they got a little cautious — first game jitters. But I thought the effort was unbelievably good.”

Air Force missed 10 of its first 11 shots from the floor in the second half, as Western State closed to within a point, 43-42. Parker made a 3-pointer and moments later a dunk off a steal by sophomore Shawn Hempsey to pump the Air Force lead back to six.

But the Falcons, who went 7-of-27 from the floor and 12-of-22 from the foul line in the second half, allowed Western State back into the game. And when Mountaineers guard Weylan Towns scored off a turnover with 4:34 left, the game was tied at 52.

Parker hit 1-of-2 free throws with 4:19 left to put Air Force back into the lead, and sophomore center Sammy Schafer and Washington followed with baskets on the Falcons’ next two possessions to give the Falcons a bit of a cushion. And Air Force hung on despite missing 4-of-6 free throws down the stretch.

Washington finished with a career-high eight rebounds, and freshman guard Michael Lyons had seven points and three rebounds.

NOTES

Lyons comes in with a roar

Freshman guard Michael Lyons made a good first impression Friday night.

The highly regarded freshman made his first shot — a 3-pointer — en route to seven points, and made a handful of plays that displayed his considerable athleticism. But he missed a tomahawk dunk in the closing minutes much to the displeasure of coach Jeff Reynolds.

In the first half, the 6-foot-6 Lyons, who led the academy prep school in scoring last season with 17.5 points per game, snatched a loose ball and slashed through traffic for a layup. And in the second half he made an emphatic block and later jumped over a Western State player to steal a rebound off a missed Air Force free throw.

In uniform

Freshmen Kyle Green and Adam Brakeville dressed for the game in place of senior guard Saj El-Amin and junior forward Derek Brooks. El-Amin is playing receiver for the football team. Brooks is focusing on academics and will not dress until the end of the semester.

Etc.

With Green and Brakeville in uniform, seven of the 15 players who dressed for the game were freshmen. Freshman forward/center Taylor Broekhuis was the first player off the bench, and at points in both halves the Falcons had three freshmen on the floor. … Air Force struggled from the foul line last season, making just 67.4 percent of its attempts, including just 62.0 percent (152-of-245) in Mountain West Conference play. It was a problem against Western State, as the Falcons made 18-of 32.