Boxscore

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- It was a tough week for Missouri Valley Conference teams in the MVC/Mountain West Conference Challenge Series, and a disappointing finish to a second half comeback for the University of Evansville here Sunday.

The second annual MVC/MWC series ended with Air Force holding off the University of Evansville 57-56 Sunday afternoon.  The Falcons' win gave the Mountain West an 8-1 advantage between the two conferences this week.  Evansville is now 3-3 overall.  Air Force has won four in a row and is now 5-1.

Air Force held Evansville to 25 first half points, and led by five at the break. Air Force was still up seven at 47-40 when the Aces went on an 11-2 run to go up 51-49 on a Kenneth Harris three-pointer with 8:28 to play.  It was Evansville's first lead since early in the first half. Harris scored seven of the 11 during the run, and Denver Holmes and Lewis Jones chipped in one basket each. 

Neither team led by more than three points in the last seven minutes. Colt Ryan tied the game for UE at 56 with 1:22 to play on his fifth three-pointer of the game, and those turned out to be the last points of the game until the final four seconds.

Evansville had a chance to go ahead as the shot clock went down to the final five seconds, but Denver Holmes' baseline shot missed with 10 seconds to play, the Falcons grabbed the rebound, and Air Force's Michael Lyons was fouled driving to the basket with 3.6 seconds to play.  He hit the first, missed the second, and after Harris grabbed the rebound, UE had 3.1 seconds to go 94 feet following a timeout.  Harris took Kavon Lacey's inbounds pass near halfcourt, but he was guarded closely by Lyons and wasn't able to draw iron on the last-second shot.

"We tried to shoot our way through things in the first half," said coach Marty Simmons.  "We got the ball in the middle more often in the second half, and that opened up the perimeter better.  But overall, the execution wasn't what it was a week ago at Butler (where UE beat the #23 ranked Bulldogs)."

Ryan kept up his hot shooting, hit 7 of 14 shots, including 5 of 7 from three-point range, and finished with 20 points.  He also led UE with eight rebounds.  Harris added nine points and seven rebounds. Lyons scored 20 for Air Force and Taylor Broekhuis added 19.

The Aces begin a four-game homestand Wednesday with one of the most highly anticipated home games in years, against the Tar Heels of North Carolina at 6:00 CST.  UNC comes into Roberts Stadium after beating Kentucky on Saturday.