In the first 15 minutes of Saturday’s game, Air Force looked primed to upset Mountain West Conference leader Colorado State in Fort Collins. 

The Rams came into the game not having played in 21 days due to three COVID-19 cancellations, and that was clearly noticeable early with Air Force controlling the pace and holding CSU to only 15 points in those first 15 minutes. 

Then, Adam Thistlewood and Isaiah Stevens happened. 

Down six with just over four minutes left in the first half, the two combined to hit three-straight 3-pointers to take their first lead. And the Rams wouldn’t give that lead up the rest of the way, beating the Falcons 72-49. 

“You could see some of the rust early,” Colorado State coach Niko Medved said. “Just to play — to get out there and get that feeling again of playing a game and getting into a flow and feeling what that’s like. I think it’s awesome. It’s been a layoff that’s stunk, but that’s just the circumstances right now.”

Air Force kept it close to start the second half, trailing by as little as five with 9:53 to go. Colorado State, though, again caught fire down the stretch, outscoring the Falcons 26-8 in the final nine minutes of regulation. 

“We have to continue to get better at limiting those types of things,” Air Force coach Joe Scott said. “Give them credit. Those two guys (Thistlewood and Stevens) were 9 of 13 today. And, I think, in terms of our shooting we were 2 of 13. … Well, that’s the game.”

As Scott said, Air Force’s top shooters, senior guard Chris Joyce, junior guard A.J. Walker and sophomore guard Camden Vander Zwaag,  struggled from the 3-point line, going a combined 2 of 13. As a team, they were 5 of 21. Walker led the Falcons in scoring with 13, but was 1 of 7 from 3. 

Meanwhile, Thistlewood scored 14 on 4-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc, while Stevens added 19 on 5-of-6 shooting from 3. David Roddy, one of the leading candidates to win MWC player of the year, also had 19 points. 

“We were getting great looks early on. We didn’t feel like we were forcing anything,” said Stevens, a junior who is also a candidate for the conference’s player of the year. “We kept shooting at good looks and just staying confident.”

The win keeps Colorado State (15-4, 12-3 Mountain West) atop the conference, tied with San Diego State. The Rams — who have the best conference record in program history — look poised to make the NCAA Tournament down the stretch, most recently being listed as one of the last four teams in by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. 

On the other side, Air Force (5-18, 3-16) hopes to close out its 2020-21 regular season on a high note and possibly spoil the Rams’ tourney hopes when they face them again Monday at 8 p.m. in Fort Collins.

“It’s an opportunity for us to, in the last game of the season, say ‘Yeah, we are getting better and we’re going to continue to get better,” Scott said. “We have to go out and play the same way we did on Monday and see if some of the things we talked about here, we turn them around in our favor a little bit.”