Lyons helps Air Force find fun in upset against No. 13 Aztecs

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- Air Force athletic director Hans Meuh fired coach Jeff Reynolds so he could restore some fun to the program.

The Falcons were all smiles Saturday.

"Everybody's on a high right now," said Michael Lyons, whose 27 points and four steals led Air Force to a 58-56 upset of No. 13 San Diego State, the Falcons' first win over a ranked team in 20 years.

"This gives us a lot of confidence," Lyons said. "We know we can play with everybody. We now know we can not only play with them, we can beat them."

The Aztecs (20-6, 6-4 Mountain West) had a chance to steal the win, but Xavier Thames' off-balance 3-pointer was off the mark at the buzzer, sending short-handed San Diego State to its third straight loss.

"It would be a great day to retire," cracked interim Air Force coach Dave Pilipovich, who might actually have secured his future with the Falcons (13-11, 3-7).

Meuh has said this is sort of a trial run for Pilipovich, who will be considered for the permanent gig after the season.

The Falcons improved to 2-1 under Pilipovich, 1-64 against top-20 teams and 2-74 against ranked opponents. The only other time they beat a ranked team was Feb. 15, 1992, against No. 22 Texas-El Paso.

The Aztecs fell two games behind conference leader New Mexico, which beat No. 11 UNLV 65-45 earlier Saturday. This is their first three-game skid since Feb. 9 to 16, 2008, a span of 143 games.

The Aztecs got 17 points from Chase Tapley, and 13 points and 11 rebounds from Tim Shelton. But they sorely missed Jamaal Franklin, their leading scorer (16.0) and rebounder (7.4), who sprained his left ankle in the closing minutes of a loss to New Mexico on Wednesday night and sat out Saturday.

The Aztecs lost another starter when 6-foot-11-inch forward Garrett Green turned his right ankle eight minutes into the second half. He took a seat after scoring five points and pulling down 10 rebounds.

■ Boise State 65, Texas Christian 64 -- At Boise, Idaho, Anthony Drmic hit two free throws with nine-tenths of a second left to lift the Broncos over the Horned Frogs.

TCU's Craig Williams had 21 points and 10 rebounds, but missed the front end of a one-and-one with six seconds left to leave the door open for Boise State (13-12, 3-7 Mountain West), which won its third consecutive game.

Amric Fields added 13 points for TCU (15-11, 5-5), which has lost seven straight road games.

■ Colorado State 54, Wyoming 46 -- At Fort Collins, Colo., Greg Smith scored 14 points and was instrumental down the stretch as the Rams beat the Cowboys.

Trailing by two, Smith drained a 3-pointer with seven minutes remaining to stake Colorado State (16-9, 5-5 Mountain West) to a 41-40 lead that proved to be permanent. Smith scored five points in the final 2:33 to help the Rams hang on.

Wyoming (18-8, 4-6) led by eight in the first half and seven in the second, but the Cowboys hit 5 of 21 shots in the final 20 minutes (23.8 percent).