Great Year for BYU Basketball

Falcons obliterate Cougs
BYU falls behind 19-0, never poses a threat
Deseret Morning News

AIR FORCE ACADEMY — Once upon a time on this side of the Rockies, folks publicly cried over the age advantage of BYU athletes. It was the mantra of coaches, media and players in locker rooms, almost a cliche.
Air Force's Marc Holum drives against Brigham Young's Mike Rose during the Falcons' surprisingly easy 70-39 win over the Cougars on Monday night.Kevin Kreck, Associated Press Now, they're silent on that issue. Instead, Cadets at the Air Force Academy yelled from their seats to the Cougars: "Our cheerleaders could beat you guys." And the gals with pom-poms grinned big as Pike's Peak. Air Force used the old steal and dunk play on BYU Monday night and raced to a convincing 70-39 victory. The Cougar loss concluded a road swing in preparation for rival Utah in which they were outscored by 50 points in two games. In the press room, Falcon players joked about record dunks on the Cougars and who had the best one. Age was not a factor. "That was the most embarrassing 40 minutes of basketball we've had since I've been at BYU," Cougar coach Steve Cleveland said. Pointing to himself, Cleveland continued: "You are going to play poorly some nights, but tonight I felt we did not compete. And that is my fault. I am responsible. We just did not give them a game, and I feel bad about that." The win lifted AFA to 16-10 and 7-4 in the MWC. BYU dropped to 9-18 and 3-9. The first score of Monday's game set the tone. Air Force guard Antoine Hood swiped the ball from Austin Ainge and raced in for a thundering slam. On the next Cougar possession, he tried it again and earned a foul, but he got the ball and was on his way. Minutes later, Hood dribbled down the lane and slammed the ball on two Cougars. "No question our defense was outstanding; you saw that from Hood on that first basket," said AFA coach Chris Mooney. "Obviously BYU is down and has had injuries, but I thought they played hard to the end." Debatable. The 39 points was the fewest every scored by a Cleveland-coached BYU team. It was the worst Cougar MWC loss ever, or since the Cougars were here a year ago. The 13 points at half were the fewest by a BYU squad since the shot clock. It was AFA's first sweep of the Cougars in Falcon history. The Cougars came out flatter than the salt flats. They looked uninspired, uninterested, intimidated and emtionally unplugged. If the 19-point whipping at New Mexico wasn't embarrassing, this was a BYU pants pull down. On the other end, AFA, fresh off getting tagged by Utah, was cannabalistic. Hood called AFA's defense "animalistic," and on the sidelines, his coach wanted it to continue for the game. It just about did. BYU's leading scorer was Sam Burgess (9 points), a guy who took off his sweat bands in disgust just a week ago at home when he knew he'd never get in. The Falcons were led by Hood's 14 and Nick Welch's 11, but no Falcon starter played more than 23 minutes. AFA outscored BYU 16-0 on fast-break points, 22-7 off turnovers, 38-6 inside the paint. Or in other words, cardboard cutouts may have done a little worse than BYU. AFA led 37-13 at half. The 31-point beating was BYU's worst league blood-letting since New Mexico got 41 on the Cougars in Provo in 1997, the old WAC. When BYU's guys weren't missing shots, they had their tries blocked.When they didn't carelessly turn the ball over, they were having it stolen as they watched Falcon players race in for lay-ins and dunks. On defense, BYU's men weren't close. "You guys in this room could have made 3-pointers at that distance," Cleveland said. It got so bad at 19-0 as BYU clunked and clanged around on zip-for-10 shooting, the AFA crowd in Clune Arena started chanting for the Cougars to score. Falcon players were administering the ultimate insult by just laughing. "When you're down 19-0, you have to reach down deep," BYU's Brock Reichner said. Reichner got his first career start — a matchup issue. He held his man, Jacob Burtschi, who had 15 against Utah, to 2 points, and that wasn't his fault. Burtschi dunked on Terry Nashif after stealing the ball from Mike Hall and going the distance. Austin Ainge scored BYU's first field goal after the third TV timeout at 9:20, a long 3-point shot that brought applause from Falcon partisans. Trailing 32-8 after Mike Hall got a layin, AFA cadets started chanting "double-digits, double-digits." Suspense grew on BYU's next possesion. It ended when Burtschi got his steal and sprinted untouched for a slam dunk and 34-8 lead. To that stage, the Cougars were 2 for 17 from the field and Ainge's bomb was the only make in 8 tries from beyond the arc. Jared Jensen, who had 9 of 10 against New Mexico on Saturday, got off just one shot in the first half, and it was blocked. BYU ended up shooting 28 percent on 14 of 50 shots, 6 of 22 from beyond the arc. AFA finished with reserves on the floor, hitting at a 56-percent clip. But Cleveland said the stats didn't begin to tell the story. His guys barely showed up. "Except for two or three guys, we didn't have it tonight."