A well-traveled Air Force women’s basketball team returns to road Wednesday to open Mountain West play. The Falcons (6-4) have played at home just once since Nov. 18 and were away from Clune Arena for seven of the 10 games in the nonconference. Air Force opens its conference slate against Ut ah State (4-5) at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan, Utah. The Falcons have battled injuries in the nonconference, playing without Milahnie Perry, Jordyn Devaughn and Alexis Cortez at times, and the resulting output has been predictably uneven. There were lopsided losses to South Dakota (96th in the NET rankings) and UC San Diego (141st), while the lone win against a top 200 team was at Utah Valley (174). The Falcons’ most recent game came at home Saturday against New Mexico Highlands, where they needed a nine-point, fourth-quarter comeback to narrowly avoid an upset to the NCAA Division II program. Storylines to track For Air Force, this should be a season to make a run. Emphasis on should. The Falcons feature one of the program’s most prolific scorers (more on that soon) in Milahnie Perry and have her surrounded by upperclassmen –- including multiyear cogs like juniors Jayda McNabb, Alexis Cortez and Keelie O’Hollaren. Point guard Jordyn Devaughn is also a junior and Emily Adams, the team’s lone senior beyond Perry, is a veteran on the interior. The team, as usual, lacks a commanding interior presence, but every other box is checked –- except, so far, consistently bringing those parts together as they try to build off one of the top-two seasons in program history. Perry (1,418 points) needs 320 points to catch Air Force’s all-time scoring record (1,738, held by Melissa Standley from 1986-90). Perry would need to average 15.2 points over the Falcons’ guaranteed 21 games to pass Standley. The program’s scoring mark at the Division I level (since 1996-97) is 1,614 from Riley Snyder (2018-22). Perry would overtake Snyder by averaging 9.3 points. UNLV appears to be at least somewhat down, going 5-5 in the nonconference after dominating the Mountain West for the past four years -– going 66-6 in conference play during those seasons, winning the regular-season title all four years and the tournament in three of those four. Coach Lindy La Rocque’s team has tested itself, to be sure, with losses coming to No. 7 Baylor and at Arizona State and wins against Washington State, DePaul and Creighton. It’s the losses at Montana State and Rice (by 25 points) that suggest the door might be open for someone else in the conference.   New Mexico has wins over Arizona and Houston, making the Lobos the first Mountain West women’s team to beat two teams from the Big 12 in a season since TCU in 2009-10. Other Mountain West teams with Power Four wins this season are UNLV (DePaul – Big East; Creighton – Big East), Grand Canyon (SMU – ACC) and San Diego State (Kansas State – Big 12). * Colorado State appears to be back, climbing to a league-best No. 58 in the NCAA Net Rankings after going 8-2. The only losses for the Rams came to Stanford and Utah. Indiana transfer Lexus Bargesser has made a splash in Fort Collins, leading the team with 17.2 ppg while shooting 55.4% from the field. CSU has been relevant, winning 20 games in each of the past four seasons, but it has been a while since the run of dominance shown earlier in coach Ryun Williams’ tenure when the Rams were 104-27 during a four-year stretch. * This is the final season of the conference under its current configuration. Following the season Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State will depart for the new-look Pac-12. The Mountain West will back fill those spots with Hawaii (already a member in football), UC Davis and UTEP. Grand Canyon has already joined the league, making its conference debut at home Wednesday against UNLV. The Antelopes, who were 32-3 last season, are 1-2 all-time against Air Force and come to Clune Arena on Feb. 7. The Falcons do not visit Grand Canyon this season. How they stack up Mountain West women’s basketball team’s NCAA Net Rankings through Monday. 58. Colorado State (8-2) 104. New Mexico (8-3) 105. San Diego State (5-3) 110. UNLV (5-5) 143. Boise State (8-2) 167. Grand Canyon (167) 177. Fresno State (5-5) 209. Air Force (6-4) 241. Nevada (3-6) 255. Utah State (3-5) 271. Wyoming (2-6) 315. San Jose State (0-9) Mountain West leaders Scoring Milahnie Perry, sr., Air Force (17.6) Lexus Bargesser, sr., Colorado State (17.2) Malene Pedersen, sr., Wyoming (17.1) Rebounds Meadow Roland, so., UNLV (9.4) Jayda McNabb, jr., Air Force (8.9) Shelbee Brown, graduate, UNLV (8.7) Assists Mya Hansen, sr., Boise State (5.3) Emilia Long, graduate, Fresno State (3.7) Nala Williams, sr., San Diego State (3.6) ...read more read less