Final: Air Force 72, Wyoming 51; offense clicks for the Falcons

January 22nd, 2011, 6:04 pm · 4 Comments · posted by Frank Schwab

There were plenty of good signs for the Air Force offense on Saturday. The amount of assists (22) to field goals (26) showed the Falcons were finding the open man and sharing the ball. They hit shots from the field (26-of-46), 3-point line (11-of-19) and free throw line (9-of-11). Four players scored in double digits.

What pleased coach Jeff Reynolds most was that his team didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for Wyoming’s unique matchup zone defense, but still was very effective against it.

“We were really concerned about lack of prep time,” Reynolds said.

The Cowboys cut off normal passing lanes early in possessions, and the Falcons couldn’t reverse the ball, so they had to improvise.

“Our main offense wasn’t working against it, our zone offense couldn’t stay together, so we tried to make things happen,” guard Todd Fletcher said. “I think it shows we’ve come a long way together.”

The Falcons didn’t practice Thursday and had just about an hour on the floor Friday, but were very sharp. The players spread around the ball, and the Falcons’ patience was perhaps the biggest reason for the offensive output against Wyoming.

“Coach is always saying to make the extra pass in practice,” Fletcher said. “We took that to heart.”

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About this blog …

I'm Frank Schwab, Air Force beat reporter for The Gazette. I've been at the paper since 2003, and covered the Broncos for seven seasons. I covered the University of Wisconsin in the late 1990s, so I'm well versed in running football teams (Ron Dayne) and defensive basketball teams (Dick Bennett). I love to chat on www.twitter.com/GazetteAirForce, and will respond to comments and emails at frank.schwab@gazette.com.

For more coverage, visit The Gazette's Air Force Academy Sports page

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Jeanelle says:

January 23, 2011 at 9:50 am

What the heck happened to WYOMING???? This use to be my favorite game of the season – always evenly matched and a good fight. This was just horrid!

ChicagoZoomie says:

January 23, 2011 at 10:59 am

Progress, progress. The shooting numbers are particularly interesting; we can compete with anyone in the MWC if we shoot the lights out like this consistently.

section 8(one of few left) says:

January 24, 2011 at 2:33 pm

The three pt shooting really opened everything for us. Unsure whether it just forced them to step out more which opened lanes, if we were just feeling confident because of the shooting, or whether WYO is just that bad, but the cutting to the basketball was clicking and it made the rest of the season feel promising. We are going to have cold shooting games, but if we can get real ball movement toward the hole(not just swinging around the arc till 6 left on the shot clock) then we can compete. The top of the MWC is brutal, but i see no reason for us not to be in the 4-5 range. (TCU, UTAH, WYO, UNLV(the one that got away)).