The Air Force Falcons must wait another year to make the NCAA Tournament. As the No. 7 seed in the 2012 Mountain West Tournament, the Falcons lost to the No. 2 New Mexico Lobos, 79-64.
The Falcons performed poorly in the first half, scoring 31 points to the Lobos' 45. What sustained the Lobos during the first 20 minutes were the 18 personal foul calls on the Rams that resulted in 27 trips to the charity stripe. They made 23 of them.
Michael Lyons needed nearly 18 minutes to score his first bucket of the game, a trey, after making seven successful free throws. He finished the game with 17 points on 4-of-14 shooting and 7-of-10 shots made at the free throw line. The team actually shot better than the Lobos, 50 percent to 46.5, but the team lost the rebounding game, 29-19, and made it to the free throw line just 22 times.
The Lobos received double-digit point totals from three starters and one bench player: Drew Gordon (15), Kendall Williams (13), Tony Snell (10) and Demetrius Walker (19).
New Mexico will now wait until Friday night to face the winner of No. 3 UNLV versus No. 6 Wyoming Cowboys.
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