UNLV forward Wendell White (5) releases a shot over Air Force center Nick Welch in the second half Saturday at Colorado Springs, Colo. Photo by The Associated Press. Matt McCraw (5) of Air Force beats UNLV's Wendell White to a rebound in the first half Saturday at Colorado Springs, Colo. It was McCraw's only rebound in the Falcons' 56-50 Mountain West victory. Photo by The Associated Press.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- It was a shooting performance so poor it left UNLV guard Kevin Kruger almost speechless.

"We just played bad and they played better," he said. "I don't really know what to say."

The end of the Rebels' 10-game winning streak arrived Saturday because their perimeter shooters failed to show up against one of the stingiest defensive teams in the nation.

Kruger was without words to describe how he and his teammates fired so many blanks in a 56-50 loss to No. 20 Air Force before a crowd of 5,908 at Clune Arena.

UNLV made only 1 of 18 3-point shots, negating strong efforts inside from Wendell White, Gaston Essengue and Joel Anthony.

The Falcons (15-1) improved to 2-0 in the Mountain West Conference and extended their home-court winning streak to 24 games.

The Rebels (14-3, 1-1) suffered their first loss since Nov. 28 at Arizona.

White did his job inside and finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Essengue and Anthony scored 10 apiece and contributed to a 39-20 advantage in rebounds.

But every other aspect of the game was ugly for UNLV.

"The shots just didn't fall," said Kruger, who was 1-for-9. "If we played a little better, we could have won that game."

Kruger, Wink Adams and Michael Umeh, the Rebels' starting guards, combined to shoot 2-for-17 and score six points.

UNLV coach Lon Kruger gave most of the credit to Air Force, which ranked fifth in the nation in scoring defense (53.4 points per game).

"We wanted to play inside-out and I thought we did that. But when the ball came back out, we didn't make shots," Lon Kruger said. "They're a great defensive team."

The Falcons played mostly man-to-man defense while mixing in a matchup zone. Jacob Burtschi, Matt McCraw and Dan Nwaelele kept the Rebels from getting many open shots from the outside.

"UNLV is a heck of a basketball team, a great defensive team," Air Force coach Jeff Bzdelik said. "They're very physical in there and it's not going to be pretty. They took away the 3s and opened it up for us to drive and we showed that we can drive. We're not a one-dimensional team."

The Falcons shot 19-for-39 (48.7 percent) from the field, but made only 3 of 12 3-pointers after entering the game second in the nation in 3-point percentage.

Nwaelele, McCraw and center Nick Welch scored 13 points each to lead Air Force.

Kevin Kruger's first point of the game came on a free throw that tied it at 43 with 6:53 remaining. Nwaelele hit a 3-pointer to put the Falcons up 52-45 with just over three minutes remaining.

Kruger finally made the Rebels' first and only 3-pointer with 1:55 to play, and it counted for something because UNLV kept intact its NCAA-record streak of 648 consecutive games with at least one made 3-pointer.

Adams missed a 15-foot jumper that could have cut the deficit to two with 1:05 remaining. The deficit was five when Umeh missed a wide-open 3 from the wing with six seconds left.

"We knew we could take advantage of the size difference. But at the end of the game, we didn't have our poise," White said. "It's a tough loss. We'll be all right."

White rolled his left ankle with five minutes left, but returned to the game. He said he was in pain but expects to be ready by Wednesday, when the Rebels play at Wyoming.