It was a valiant effort, but Air Force men’s basketball will have to wait another game for a chance at victory. 

The Falcons kept in-state rival Colorado State close for most of the first half but trailed the entire second half to fall to the Rams 91-74 at Clune Arena on Tuesday. It is the last regular-season matchup between the programs as Mountain West opponents before CSU joins the Pac-12. 

The Rams (14-10, 5-8 Mountain West) also beat the Falcons in Fort Collins on Jan. 20 to make Tuesday their seventh-straight win over Air Force (3-21, 0-13). CSU led by eight points after the first half, but pulled away to lead by as many as 22 (86-64) in the second half. 

“I think we did a good job at executing on offense (in the first half),” Air Force freshman Lucas Hobin said. “We were able to get good shots, everyone was doing their job and passing, we were able to get some stops in the beginning, which helped us. If we kept doing that we would have had a better second half.”

It is Air Force’s 17th-straight loss and it has yet to record a conference win with its last victory Nov. 23 over IU Indianapolis. Still, the Falcons’ 74 points is a season high for a Mountain West game this season. 

Kam Sanders and Hobin led three Falcons freshmen in double figures with 17 points, followed by Ethan Greenberg with 10. The freshmen accounted for 49 points, with 54% of the team’s scoring (61 percent in MW games) coming from the freshmen this season. 

Junior Caleb Walker returned to the court Tuesday after sitting out six games due to injury. The team captain had nine points on 3-of-6 shooting and six rebounds.  

“Caleb is huge for us, a really big presence in the game so it’s nice to have him back out there,” Hobin said. “He is doing everything he can to get back to the team. I thought he did a really great job tonight for being out for multiple weeks.”

Air Force had a strong night from 3-point range, shooting 10 of 22 (45.5%), above its season average of 30.4%. Sanders went 3 of 3 from 3-point range while Hobin went 5 of 9. 

Force shot 55% from the field after 69.5% shooting in the first half, which was a season high for a half. The Rams shot 50% in the first half, but improved to 60% in the second half to finish with 55% overall. 

“We forced them to play really well,” interim head coach Jon Jordan said. “They stepped up and made quite a few 3s. We got to get better at that but we forced them to play at a high level to do well and beat us. We didn’t make it easy on them, made them work. Defense is coming along. Just trying to get better little by little.”

After six ties and seven lead changes, a 7-0 CSU run put the Rams up by eight with less than two minutes left in the first half. Despite two 3-pointers by Hobin in the final minute, CSU led 47-39 into the break. CSU went 14 of 14 from the foul line in the first half, while Air Force went 1 of 3. 

Air Force travels to Fresno State on Saturday to face the Bulldogs at 3 p.m. MT.