Pine Creek proved that the Air Academy home basketball court is not invincible. 

A year after Pine Creek fell to Air Academy in a 49-48 thriller, the Eagles led for the entire contest Thursday to take down the Kadets 50-41 on the road. It is Air Academy’s (9-1) first loss of the season and first loss at home since the 2022-2023 season. 

“We felt that loss from last year all to today, there was a bit of a chip on our shoulder coming into this game,” Pine Creek assistant coach Jade McIntosh, subbing for head coach Janean Jubic, said. “We knew we had to play to the end. Air Academy is a great team, and we wanted to remind them who the better team is this year.” 

Pine Creek (7-3) led by as many as 15 in the fourth quarter while its defense limited Kadet senior and Boston College commit Kinley Asp to 16 points, below her season average of 23.4 points per game. 

“We had great team defense tonight,” McIntosh said. “[Asp] is a great player, and I thought our girls did a great job locking her down. Our senior guard Paige Murdock did a great job playing defense on her, making her play tough shots. That was our main thing on defense, and offensively, our post players made great pass decisions.” 

Pine Creek came out aggressively from the first possession to lead 15-7 after the first quarter. The Eagles led by as many as 10 points in the first quarter, but Asp, Air Academy’s only senior, helped cut the lead with two field goals in the last 50 seconds. 

“They are incredibly athletic, super tall, and some great players from last year,” Asp said. “We knew it was going to be a battle. Starting with a younger team, we knew we had to fight and get down on the inside against older girls. Pine Creek is an incredible team, and we fought as hard as we could, but didn’t get the dub. It was a good test for sure.”

This is Asp’s first loss at home across her two years at CSCS and junior year at Air Academy. The Kadets were 26-1 last season, with their only loss coming from Mullen in the 5A state championship at the Denver Coliseum.  

“Nobody likes to lose, but we are going to learn from it and move on,” Asp said. 

The Kadets managed to cut Pine Creek’s lead to five with just under 3 minutes left in the second quarter, but were unable to add any more while the Eagles extended their lead to 27-19 into the locker room.  

Pine Creek put together an 8-0 run in the third quarter to lead by 12 (39-27 after a field goal by senior Alli Dreessen at the buzzer. Dreessen led the Eagles with 21 points Thursday, just shy of her season-high of 22 points against Fort Collins. The Eagles held off a push by the Kadets in the fourth quarter to avenge last year’s loss and move to 7-3. 

“We wanted to come back and get revenge, and we got it done,” Dreessen said. “We learned from our mistakes, but also just played aggressive, played how we play.”

The victory gives Pine Creek confidence moving forward, but McIntosh doesn’t think the team has reached its potential yet. 

“Our best is yet to come,” McIntosh said. “Tonight showed we can win tough games.”