AFA feels no shame in loss to Y.

PROVO — For Air Force basketball coach Joe Scott, there was no shame in his Falcons' 67-61 loss to BYU on Monday night at the Marriott Center, no bad blood on a rough second-half foul by Cougar center Rafael Araujo that bloodied the face of A.J. Kuhle, and certainly no knowledge that BYU had to shoot lights-out to claim the contest between the Mountain West Conference's top two teams.

"I don't think it's a heartbreaker at all — we did our jobs," Scott said.

The job was to hang close and be in a position to win, and the Falcons cut a six-point deficit with five minutes to play to a single-point margin, then trailing 58-56 with the ball and less than two minutes to play.

Air Force's Nick Welch suddenly found himself with the ball, alone in the lane and open space between him and the hoop. He took an unexpected extra hop and was whistled for traveling.

"You get the ball in the middle of the paint like that, and there's usually a guy on you," Scott said. "Nobody was on him, and I think he was a little stunned, and that's why he walked. If that doesn't happen, it's 58-all with two minutes to go."

He continued. "We did our jobs — the pressure's on them. They've got to make a play, there's a lot of tension in the building, and that's all I wanted to do — I wanted our guys to give themselves a chance to win in the last five minutes of the game."

Air Force still leads the conference at 9-2 (19-5 overall), two-plus games ahead of second-place BYU (8-4, 18-7). Scott and his Falcons now face a two-game homestand where they can wrap up the MWC regular-season title.

For all his sideline animations during the game, Scott downplayed Araujo's fourth personal, with the Falcon bench clamoring for a flagrant foul when his elbows collided with the face of a driving Kuhle.

"The guy got his lip split twice tonight — the refs saw what they saw and they called a foul," said Scott, noting that Air Force weathered the storm at that point, chipping away at BYU's largest-of-the-night lead of seven points to pull back into contention.

Of the muscle-bound, 6-foot-11 Araujo, he added: "He's a physical player — he's big and strong and that's the stuff that happens. It's a physical game — it's not a game for the faint of heart."

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