RENO, Nev. - Nevada will go into the holiday break 1-1 in Mountain West play after Air Force earned a split of the weekend's two-game series Sunday, defeating the pack, 68-66.
The Pack (6-3, 1-1 MW) will resume Mountain West play after the break on the road against New Mexico, facing the Lobos Dec. 31 (6 p.m. PT, FS1) and Jan. 2 (7 p.m. PT, CBS Sports Network).
Sunday, Nevada looked in control for the opening 20 minutes, holding a 33-24 lead at the break. But Air Force (3-3, 1-1 MW) came out firing to start the second half, hitting its first six attempts and shooting 54.5 percent (12-for-22) in the period, and outscoring the pack, 44-33, over the final 20 minutes.
Falcons guard A.J. Walker led the attack, finishing the night with 27 points and going 11-for-18 from the field. Walker's 27 points were a season high by a Pack opponent, with 16 coming in the second half.
Sophomore forward
Zane Meeks led Nevada with a career high-matching 18 points, and adding eight rebounds. Meeks also went 7-for-8 from the line Sunday.
Redshirt junior guard
Desmond Cambridge, Jr., had his streak of three-straight 20-point games snapped, being held to nine points on 4-of-12 shooting.
Air Force erased the nine-point Wolf Pack lead with a 10-1 run to open the second half, with Walker scoring six of those Falcon points. The Pack missed its first three attempts before K.J. Hymes' bucket put Nevada back up two at 36-34 with just over three minutes gone.
But the Falcons would stay hot, taking a 42-39 lead on Glen McClintock's triple just over three minutes later, and stretched that lead to as many as eight at 52-44 with 7:29 to play.
Nevada would buckle down on defense to help fuel a quick comeback, forcing an over-and-back and a 10-second violation on consecutive possessions, while Hymes provided five points of an 11-2 Pack run capped by a three-point play with 4:38 to go.
Cambridge, Jr., would drive for a layup to up the lead to 57-54 after another defensive stop, but the Pack would go scoreless over the next two minutes, while Air Force got a bucket from Walker and a triple from Chris Joyce, who scored 18 points, to retake the lead at 59-57 with 1:49 to play.
It was still a two-point game at 61-59 with under a minute to go before Air Force's Nikc Jackson hit a 3-pointer with 32 seconds on the clock to make it a five-point game. Two Walker free throws after a Pack miss made it a seven-point game, and the Falcons would hold on despite a late rush from Nevada.
