AIR FORCE ACADEMY — The last thing the four-time defending Mountain West champs wanted was to fall flat on the road to a team that hadn’t won a game all season.
That’s no way to crawl back into contention in the conference race, but crawl to the finish was what Colorado State’s women’s basketball team had to do Wednesday night at Air Force, holding off the Falcons 40-39 to move to 4-3 in MW play, 12-6 overall.
The Falcons are now 0-6, 0-17, but they had the Rams on the ropes in the fourth quarter, holding CSU scoreless the final 3:21 of the game. A basket by Courtney Porter with 46 seconds remaining were the final points, but the Falcons gave themselves a chance by creating a turnover with 14 seconds on the clock, but Porter missed a shot and Stine Austgulen grabbed the rebound to seal the win.
Not much was pretty for the Rams, who shot 31 percent in the game and scored 20 points less than they average and only had four assists. They were also out-rebounded and had 20 turnovers, too many, even on a night when they forced 24, getting 22 points off those chances.
Liah Davis gave the Rams an inside presence they needed, leading the team with 11 points, the only CSU player in double digits, while pulling down eight rebounds. Grace Colaivalu had nine, but no other Ram had more than five as they scored just 17 second-half points.
Defense saved the game, limiting the Falcons to just 33 percent from the field while only sending the hosts to the free-throw line four times, 16 less attempts than CSU had, which went 11-of-17 from the stripe.
Emily Conroe led the Falcons with 12 points, all of them coming on 3-pointers.
CSU remains on the road Saturday with a game at UNLV (4 p.m.).
Colorado State 40, Air Force 39
Colorado State
Austgulen 2-6 0-0 5, Tvrdy 2-5 1-2 5, Mirkovic 1-3 1-2 4, Colaivalu 3-9 3-4 9, Davis 3-11 5-7 11, Edwards 1-2 1-2 3, Tryggedsson 1-3 0-0 3, Kaiser 0-2 0-0 0, Brady 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-42 11-17 40.
Air Force
Bennett 3-9 0-0 6, Itugbu 1-4 3-4 5, Porter 3-5 0-0 6, Conroe 4-9 0-0 12, Immel 3-10 0-0 8, Beale 0-2 0-0 0, Rains 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 15-46 3-4 39.
Score by quarters:
Colorado State 11 12 11 6 — 40
3-point field goals — CSU 3-12 (Austgulen 1-4, Tvrdy 0-1, Mirkovic 1-1, Colaivalu 0-2, Tryggedsson 1-3, Kaiser 0-1), AFA 6-20 (Bennett 0-2, Conroe 4-7, Immel 2-7, Springfield 0-1, Beale 0-1, Rains 0-2). Total fouls — CSU 15, AFA 17. Fouled out — None. Rebounds — CSU 29 (Davis 8), AFA 36 (Bennett 10)Assists — CSU 4 (Austgulen, Tvrdy 2), AFA 8 (Bennett, Porter 3).
