AFA men's basketball: Falcons exorcise shooting demons in win

Air Force’s game Saturday night at Clune Arena against Charleston Southern came exactly one week after the Falcons’ 24-point home loss to Northern Colorado.

The six days between contests dragged for all the Falcons, but especially senior forward Grant Parker, who missed all 10 of his shots from the floor in last weekend’s loss.

“It’s hard to play that bad and then have a week before you play again,” Parker said. “Not only did we have a week off, but it was Thanksgiving break, so you have a lot of time to sit around and think about stuff.”

Parker won’t have to stew about that performance any longer. In Saturday night’s 68-58 victory over the Buccaneers, he made 7-of-13 shots from the floor and 10-of-12 free throws en route to a game-high 25 points. And with Air Force playing without its top two centers, Parker also made an effort to crash the boards and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.

“Tonight he just put us on his back,” Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said.

With the victory, Air Force improved to 3-1 and snapped a streak of 10 straight losses to Division I opponents at Clune Arena.

Air Force started slowly. The Falcons made just four field goals and turned the ball over five times on their first 19 possessions and fell behind 19-11 with 8:27 left in the first half.

But the Falcons scored on four straight possessions, including back-to-back 3-pointers by senior Avery Merriex and junior Tom Fow, to climb back into the game. Then, late in the half, Merriex hit another 3 and Fow scored on a drive with 33 seconds to play to give the Falcons a 28-26 lead at the break.

Early in the second half, Air Force went on a 12-0 run, with Fow and Parker contributing six and five points, respectively, to give the Falcons a commanding 48-32 lead. And make sure there wouldn’t be a repeat of last week’s performance.

“We didn’t want to lose like that ever again,” said Fow, who had 13 points. “Especially with the history of this arena and this program.”