A late second-half surge against Colorado State Pueblo came up just a bit short for UAFS in Friday's season opener in the Nissan of Wichita Falls Conference Challenge.

UAFS rallied from a 16-point deficit with about 15 minutes left to play to get within three points of Colorado State-Pueblo with less than 10 minutes to play, but the Lions couldn't complete their comeback, falling 90-83 to the Thunderwolves at D.L. Ligon Coliseum in Wichita Falls, Texas.

The Lions (0-1) will play the host Midwestern State Mustangs at 8 p.m. on Saturday in the final game of the four-team, two-day event.

UAFS trailed by 11 points at halftime and that deficit swelled to 16 points when Colorado State-Pueblo's Corey Seng scored a fastbreak bucket to give the Thunderwolves a 63-47 advantage with 15:24 left to play.

The Lions answered with a 17-4 run over the next six minutes to cut their deficit to three points (67-64) on a jumper by freshman guard Matiss Sivins with 9:17 left in the game. UAFS, however, couldn't close the gap any more.

Colorado State-Pueblo pushed its lead back to as many as nine points, and UAFS got no closer than four points over the final stretch – the last time (84-80) coming on a free-throw by senior guard Chris Crawford with 49 seconds left.

Crawford led the Lions with 26 points, while freshman post David Ekezie had 18 points and freshman guard Matiss Sivins had 12. UAFS shot 48 percent from the field (31 of 65) – it was 8-of-26 shooting from 3-point range – and shot 62 percent from the free-throw line (13 of 21).

Ekezie just missed a double-double, finishing with a team-high nine rebounds.

The Thunderwolves shot 53 percent from the field (29 of 55) – they were 5-of-14 shooting from 3-point range – and shot 93 percent from the free-throw line (27 of 29). Guard Donavan Oldham scored a team-high 26 points, including 12 points from the free-throw line. Forward Jason Anderson had 20 points, while Cade Carrol had 19 points.

Anderson topped off his double-double with 11 rebounds, helping the Thunderwolves out-rebound the Lions by 16 rebounds (42-26).
 
MEN'S BASKETBALL
NISSAN OF WICHITA CONFERENCE CHALLENGE
COLORADO STATE-PUEBLO 90, UAFS 83
UAFS                          42        41        --          83
CSU-Pueblo                53        37        --          90
UAFS (0-1): Crawford 26, Ekezie 18, Sivins 12, Ward 7, Hawley 7, Bowie 6, Williams 5, Morgan 2
CSU-Pueblo (1-0): Oldham 26, Anderson 20, Carrol 19, Liggett 9, Phillips 6, Gilbert 4, Barr 2, Hardy 2, Seng 2