Mountain West Conference Tournament Recaps

Las Vegas, NV (SportsNetwork.com) – The Air Force Falcons recovered from a slow start to earn a 68-61 win over the New Mexico Lobos and advance to the quarterfinals in the Mountain West Conference Tournament.

Air Force will next take on the league’s top team, Boise State, on Thursday.

Zach Kocur led all scorers with 20 points, 12 of which came on 3-pointers. Trevor Lyons added 10 points, five assists and five steals as the Falcons (14-16) scored 21 points off 18 New Mexico turnovers.

New Mexico, the eighth seed, led for most of the game but saw its three- season conference tournament winning streak come to an end. Hugh Greenwood scored 16 points, and Sam Logwood added 14 for the Lobos (15-16).

The ninth-seeded Falcons made only two of their first 16 shots but trailed just 15-6 before the midpoint of the first half. New Mexico led 32-28 at the break with 11 points from Greenwood.

The two teams traded the lead for much of the second half, but the Falcons took command with a late 9-0 run that turned a four-point deficit into a lead of 58-53. Kocur accounted for six of those points with a pair of 3- pointers.

Final Score: UNLV 67, Nevada 46

Las Vegas, NV (SportsNetwork.com) – Christian Wood scored 28 points on 9-of-13 shooting to lead the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels to a 67-46 win over the Nevada Wolf Pack in Mountain West Conference Tournament play.

Jordan Cornish added 13 points for the seventh-seeded Rebels (18-14), who will play No. 2 seed San Diego State in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Eric Cooper Jr. paced the 10th-seeded Wolf Pack (9-22) with 10 points in their season-ending loss, and A.J. West grabbed 18 rebounds. Nevada shot just 28.8 percent from the field.

Nevada committed 20 turnovers leading to 21 points for the Rebels.

The Wolf Pack missed their first six shots from the field but trailed just 4-0 when Cooper ended the drought at 16:45. The Wolf Pack led 12-11 nearly eight minutes into the game, but UNLV finished the half on a 16-5 run to lead 27-17 at the break.

Prior to the midpoint of the second half, Nevada used a 12-4 run with seven points from Cooper to pull within three. However, the Rebels would later go on a 14-1 run to put the game away. Wood started the surge with a layup and later converted a three-point play.

Nevada was just 1-of-10 from the floor in the final 10 minutes of the game, while UNLV hit 10 of its last 13 attempts.

Categorized in: NCAA Basketball