COLORADO SPRINGS — For a half, it was a nail-biter.

In the second half, it was a mismatch.

Lobo J.R. Giddens was more than nice to the flyboy branch of the armed services Wednesday night in the Air Force Academy's Clune Arena.

The University of New Mexico senior was grounded for 14 minutes and 59 seconds of the first half nursing two fouls.

The Falcons took advantage of Giddens' absence from the floor and hung with the Lobos for a 35-all halftime score.

Giddens wasn't so nice in the second half as his presence opened the court for other Lobos and UNM surged to a 68-51 Mountain West Conference win.

It was tough sitting over there watching," said the 6-foot-5 wing. "Our lead was going away and there was nothing I could do to help.

"But I knew I'd come out in the second half with three fouls to play with and that I would have time to try and change things."

Giddens had five points and no rebounds in the first half. In the second half, Giddens had nine points, seven rebounds, two blocked shots and two steals. He finished with 14 points. He played all 20 minutes of the second half.

He was joined in double figures by Daniel Faris with 11 points. UNM got nine point from freshman Dairese Gary, nine points from Chad Toppert, seven points from Roman Martinez, six points from Darren Prentice and five points from Jamaal Smith.

The Falcons were led by Eric Kenzik, who had 11 points, a career high. He had all of his points in the first half. The Falcons' leading scorer, Tim Anderson, had another tough night with the UNM defense scoring seven points = only two more than he scored in The Pit.

"I thought that we wore them down," said Lobos coach Steve Alford. "We talked about it at halftime. That's why I don't have much voice."

Said Lobos Smith: "He said a few things. He said a lot of things. Mostly, he told us we had to go out there and start playing defense."

The win raised the Lobos overall mark to 21-6 and kept them alive and well in the MWC race at 8-4. The Lobos play at Utah at noon on Saturday.

Air Force fell to 13-12 and 5-7. It was only the sixth home loss for the Falcons in their past 72 games in Clune.

The Falcons made the same mistake in the second half as they did in the first half. They let the Lobos run off to a fat lead. That lead was 27-13 in the first half. It was 51-42 in the second half with 9:15 to play when Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds called a timeout to try and rally his flyboys.

The rally never materialized.

At the 6:37 mark, UNM's lead had grown to 13 points, 56-43 on a Smith layup. Giddens blocked a shot and outraced the defense to the other end, pulled in a nice pass from Smith, was fouled on a layup attempt. He made one free throw to make it 57-43, a 14-point UNM bulge.

Giddens made two free throws at the 3:55 mark to push UNM up 61-48. The Falcons tried to get back into the game with long-range bombs, but failed to find the range.

Probably the final blow was a Prentice trey at the 3:04 mark followed by a Giddens' block. UNM was up 64-48 and had the ball with 2:50 to play.

"Our best player was out 15 minutes of the first half and we were able to get to halftime fine," said Alford. "Then in the second half, he played the entire 20 minutes and did a great job on the backboard.

"We got a lot of production out of everybody tonight."

The Lobos and the Falcons entered the halftime locker room exactly as they had began the game -- tied on the scoreboard.

The Lobos ran to a 27-13 lead at the 10 minute mark of the first half, but the Falcons rallied to tie the game at 32-all and 35-all going into the break.

The Lobos were hurt in the first half when Giddens, went to the bench at the 14:59 mark with two fouls.

UNM was paced in the first half by Toppert with nine points and Faris with seven. Air Force got 11 points from Eric Kenzik, a career-high for the 6-foot-9 center.

The Lobos shot 12-of-21 for 57.1 percent and Air Force was 11-of-19 for 57.9 percent. UNM was 8-of-11 from behind the 3-point line for 72.7 percent and the Falcons were 6-of-9 for 66.7 percent. UNM began the game going 9-of-10 from the floor.

The lead exchanged hands early with UNM leading 3-0 and 11-9 and Air Force leading 6-3 and 9-6. At the 14:59 timeout it was 11-11 with UNM's Giddens on the bench with his twin fouls and Toppert in as the replacement. Air Force took a hit to fouls about a minute later when 6-8 senior Keith Maren went to the bench with two fouls, his second called on an illegal screen.

The loss of Giddens really didn't hurt UNM at that point. The Lobos then got on a 11-0 run keyed by two 3-pointers by Toppert and one by Smith.

That scoring burst convinced Air Force coach Reynolds to call a timeout. The Falcons came out of the break with a quick turnover on a steal by Prentice which led to another Toppert bomb from the left side.

UNM was up 27-13 going into a media timeout exactly halfway through the first 20 minutes. UNM was shooting 90 percent from the floor, 9-of-10 with the only miss coming from freshman Jonathan Wills.

Air Force finally ended the UNM run with a 3-pointer from Anderson to cut the Lobos lead to 27-16.

The Falcons' start actually was much better than their start in The Pit, but the Lobos were red hot.

Air Force got another trey, this one from Kenzik and it was 27-19. Kenzik again and it was 27-22 and the half-full Clune Arena started to make a little noise.

Monquel Pegues broke the Air Force run with a layup, Air Force answered with a layup and it was 29-24. Anwar Johnson beat Toppert badly on a dribble drive, went in for a soaring dunk and the Falcons were back in it 29-26 going into a media timeout at 5:17.

At that mark, UNM had cooled to .667 percent from the field, 10-of-15. Air Force was 9-of-16 for .563 percent.

UNM's Gary came out of the timeout and missed a 10-footer and Kenzik beat Faris on a dribble drive to make it 29-28. The Lobos 14-point lead evaporated at the 3:52 mark when Falcon Kenzik hit one free throw to tie the game at 29-all.

The Lobos quickly regained the lead when Gary threw in a 3-pointer. UNM held a 32-29 lead going into the final media timeout of the first half at the 2:26 mark.

The final minutes of the first half were bad news for Faris who picked up his second foul with 1:44 to play and 11 ticks later picked up his third foul. The Falcons made two free throws off Faris' third foul and with 54.8 seconds to play Falcon Anderson added one free toss to tie the game again at 32-all.

Prentice hit a trey for UNM and Andrew Henke returned the favor for Air Force and the teams went into the half the way they started the game -- tied.