Courtesy of Braidon Nourse

LAS VEGAS – No. 7 Air Force pushed and pushed, but just couldn’t keep No. 10 Utah State outside of arm’s reach. Aggies point guard Cheyenne Stubbs nearly willed her team into real striking distance by herself after teammate Taliyah Logwood exited in foul trouble, but the Falcons held onto a 66-59 win in their 2025 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Basketball Championship opener.

Down 12 to start the fourth quarter, Utah State trimmed its deficit down to five on three separate occasions and as few as three in the last minute. Timely 3s from Stubbs and a workhorse effort from Logwood to poach steals, rebounds and stingy layups bent Air Force, but did not break it.

In fact, Utah State broke itself a bit in moments, particularly with a chance to tie the game with around 30 seconds left. Logwood, who had played nearly perfectly outside of coming close to fouling out, rushed what could have been a game-altering or overtime-forcing possession and missed a layup.

Air Force came up with the rebound and it turned into a free-throws game. Those momentum-swinging lapses in discipline were spread generously among the 40 minutes, and the Falcons were grateful beneficiaries.

“I think their press was something we capitalized on a lot down the stretch,” Air Force guard Madison Smith said. “We were able to get a lot of easy buckets off their press. Our coaches did a great job emphasizing that this week in practice, so we knew what to do. I think it ended up in five or six wide-open layups down the stretch that put us ahead and were able to keep us in the lead.”

The wide leads for Air Force — sometimes as large as 14 points — came from a balanced offense that made good decisions, particularly in the paint.

On multiple occasions, the Falcons caught the Aggies in a numbers disadvantage down low, and Smith and star guard Milahnie Perry took advantage. Whether it was finding each other, Jayda McNabb or otherwise, Air Force consistently picked apart the Aggies when it was its turn for a run.

The rebounding totals were just about even on the night, but most of Air Force’s went to either McNabb or Smith. Both had double-doubles with 14 points and 11 rebounds; and 10 points and 13 points, respectively. Perry added 22 points and came close to a double-double of her own with six assists.

“Any time you get two players with double-doubles — we often get that from Jayda — but just Milahnie Perry down the stretch,” Air Force coach Stacy McIntyre said. “I mean, she can win a game for you. I’ve often told her when the game’s on the line or when the ball’s in her hand not to doubt herself, and she didn’t do that tonight. She was fantastic.”

The often-elusive feat of beating a single team three times in a season nearly escaped from Air Force’s grasp on Sunday, but now the script is flipped for its quarterfinal game on Monday.

No. 2 Wyoming, which has beaten Air Force in both of their meetings this year, is waiting on its chance to make it three against the Falcons. Cowgirls forward Allyson Fertig is as much of a handful as Air Force, or any team, will have to face.

But maybe the script can be flipped by McIntyre’s team, which she says is “peaking at the right time.”

–mw–