It's a Classic fall: An ace in the hole

A second-half shellacking occurred at Clune Arena on Sunday, much to the chagrin of Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds.

The Falcons were tied at halftime, but unheralded Wofford stunned the crowd of 1,806 with a dominant performance after intermission for a 74-61 victory to conclude the Reggie Minton Air Force Classic.

"The most disappointing thing is we didn't commit to defend," Reynolds said. "We're young but the four we had on the floor most of the time played last year. It's something we've got to fix."

Wofford junior guard Junior Salters made seven 3-pointers for a game-high 28 points and was named the Classic's Most Valuable Player.

"Salters went out of his mind," Wofford coach Mike Young said. "That's probably as well as we can play and as poorly as they can play."

Wofford (2-2) opened with road losses to Dayton (52-49) and Clemson (93-40). The Terriers topped Texas-Pan American 75-70 on Saturday.

Air Force (3-1), which plays at Stanford on Wednesday, was led by junior post Grant Parker with a career-high 15 points. Senior Matt Holland had 13, sophomore guard Evan Washington added 11 and senior guard Andrew Henke had 10.

Holland and Henke were named to the All-Classic team along with Wofford's Noah Dahlman, Nick Weaver of Colorado at Colorado Springs and Nick Weiermiller of Texas-Pan American.

Air Force began the game on a roll and led 11-3. The Falcons were up 29-20 before the Terriers ended the half on a 9-0 spurt.

Over a span of 7:16 sandwiching halftime, the Terriers shredded Air Force's matchup zone and enjoyed a 24-4 run to go ahead 44-33.

"That sort of took the crowd out of it," Holland said. "We need to be the aggressors and we weren't. That's disappointing."

Salters started and ended the decisive 24-4 run with 3-pointers while Dahlman netted 10 points as the Terriers took command. Salters made 7 of 13 from beyond the 3-point arc.

"They were making shots at the very end of the shot clock," Parker said. "That's demoralizing."

Reynolds said his team has to be tougher mentally, has to create stops on defense when the offense suffers a lull.

"Our matchup was effective early but they lit it up in the second half," Reynolds said.

"At the same time, "Young said, "Air Force got on their heels on the offensive end."

The lead peaked at 63-45 with 5:33 left.

"They were hitting 3s and we weren't taking it personally," Parker said. "It's got to be more than just trying. They just made a decision that this was their game and we didn't match their intensity."