Feb. 16, 2004
New Page 1
Edinburg, Texas - The house was a rocking in Edinburg
tonight. A very noisy crowd of 3,623 saw Texas-Pan American upset one of the top
30 teams in the country, Air Force, 37-35 at the UTPA Fieldhouse. The Falcons
were ranked 27th in the USA/ESPN Coaches Poll and 28th in the AP poll.
Texas-Pan American showed Air Force that
they came to play as they jumped to a 10-2 lead after six minutes of play. The
Falcons woke up as two free throws by Nick Welch, a jumper from Welch
and a three-pointer from Tim Keller closed the gap to 10-9. Air Force got
its first lead on a lay-up from A.J. Kuhle, 16-14 at the 3:48 mark. 24
seconds later Sergio Sanchez (Jr./San Antonio, Texas/Temple College) hit
a three to put UTPA back up 17-16. A jumper from Allen Holcomb
(Sr./Chicago, Ill./Allen County CC) made it 19-16 with 1:43 to go and that was
the score at halftime.
The second half saw the lead usually not
more than two points one way or the other. With 7:03 to go, Jacob Burtsch
hit a jumper to make it 30-29, Falcons. With 5:15 left Burtsch was called
for a foul and a technical foul. Sanchez and Holcomb combined to
hit three of free throws to give the Broncs a 32-30 lead. They never lost the
lead. Keller put up a shot with less than five seconds left but Eric Montalvo (Jr./La Joya, Texas/La Joya HS) grabbed the rebound and ran around
the court to finish the game.
The big story of the game was defense as
the Broncs forced the Falcons into their worst shooting night of the season,
30.2% from the floor and 4-of-24 for 16.7% from behind the arc. The combined
point total of 72 was the lowest for UTPA since they beat Northern Michigan,
30-29 on January 5, 1970.
For Texas-Pan American (12-13), Holcomb
had 12 points and eight rebounds while Montalvo had eight points.
For Air Force (18-4), Welch led the
way with 15 points and nine rebounds.
"I'm just so fired up for our guys. It's a
big win for our program." Said head coach Bob Hoffman. "Other than the
Baylor win at the San Juan Shootout in 2001-02, this is the biggest win for the
school during my tenure. Air Force is a very talented and strong team. We went
to game films of last year's games and decided to go with a zone defense. Our
guys did a very good job of communicating and making sure people were covered."
Texas-Pan American closes out the home
portion of the season, Thursday, February 19 vs. Central Baptist. The game is
scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.
