Falcons stop underhanded Cowboys

UW-Air Force game statistics

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- Recent losses by the Wyoming Cowboys were certainly Air Force’s gain.

Led by Evan Washington, the Falcons broke a 22-game conference losing streak with a 70-63 win over Wyoming Saturday.

Along with leading scorer Afam Muojeke out for the season, the Cowboys were also without the junior post Adam Waddell, who sat out the game an ankle injury suffered while scoring 13 points and grabbing 22 rebounds in a win over Utah on Wednesday.

“It's a tough pill to swallow, but my hat's off to Jeff (Reynolds)," Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. "We came here and thought our game plan was pretty good, even though (Air Force) went on a roll there and knocked down a couple threes against the zone we played. I think that was the difference."

The win was the first conference victory for the Falcons (9-11, 1-6 Mountain West Conference) since March 5, 2008, and also snapped a six-game losing streak. They held the Cowboys (9-12, 2-5) to 5-of-22 3-point shooting in the win and scored nine of their final 13 points from the free-throw line.

"We made free throws when we needed to today," Reynolds said. "We didn't shoot the ball well in the first half, but in the second half, we shot it the way we do in practice. We got some shots at the rim, but their length really bothered us."

The Falcons used a 16-4 second-half run to take a 49-42 lead with 8:42 remaining, but the Cowboys responded with eight straight points to take a 50-49 lead with 5:56 left. The lead would be their last.

Air Force hit 7 of 11 3-pointers in the second half en route to the victory and took the lead for good on a Washington jumper with 5:35 remaining. Washington scored eight points in the final 1:21.

Michael Lyons had 16 points for Air Force and Grant Parker added 12.

Freshman Desmar Jackson led Wyoming with 21 points, followed by freshman Amath M'Baye had 11 and sophomore JayDee Luster and junior Djibril Thiam with 10 each.

Air Force began the game with an 11-2 run after hitting its first three 3-pointers, but hit just one of its next 11 threes. Wyoming capitalized with a 10-0 run midway through the first half to take the lead and led 29-26 at halftime.

The Cowboys will look to get back on the winning side Wednesday when they host UNLV (7 p.m.) in the Arena-Auditorium.