Air Force rides Fitzgerald's hot hand to victory

Mike Fitzgerald’s 3-point shooting seemed to influence the rest of the Falcons – in a good way.

Fitzgerald hit a career-high six 3-pointers for a career-high 19 points and Michael Lyons scored a game-high 23, as Air Force defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 63-51 on Saturday night at Clune Arena.

Fitzgerald hit four 3s in the first half – including three in a row – and then broke his previous career high of 13 points with his fifth 3 4:51 into the second half, giving the Falcons (5-2) a 36-24 lead.

That’s when his teammates decided to show they could shoot, too. Lyons hit back-to-back 3s and Justin Hammonds, fresh off the bench, hit one to extend Air Force’s lead to 42-25 with 14:34 to play.

“I felt great today,” said Fitzgerald, whose six 3s were the most since Tom Fow did it Dec. 22, 2009, against UC Davis. “I got a lot of looks today and fortunately they went in. When I hit a couple 3s in the first half it gave us a little boost, I think.”

The Falcons shot 42.9 percent from 3-point range and 56.4 percent overall.

It was too much for the Golden Lions (1-5). The Falcons defense held Pine Bluff to 32.6-percent shooting from the field and held leading scorer Savalace Townsend to three field goals. Townsend entered the game averaging 18.6 points per game and scored 16 against the Falcons.

A pair of free throws by Townsend closed the gap to 58-44 with 3:00 to play. But Fitzgerald drained a 3 the next time down the court and the Golden Lions never threatened again.

“He’s a spark for us when he can get quick baskets like that for us,” Lyons said. “We kind of feed off his energy.”

Despite the sharp shooting, the Falcons were disappointed in their 20 turnovers, second most on the season.

“We made a lot of unforced errors,” Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said. “Anytime you turn the ball over 20 times, we just didn’t make mature decisions.”

Defensively, the Falcons forced 13 turnovers and outrebounded Pine Bluff 34-25. The Falcons were coming off their best defensive performance in five years, after holding Wright State to 34 points and 20-percent shooting from the field.

“Our defense has been picking up a lot, you saw that from Wright State,” Fitzgerald said. “Now that we carried it on to this game it shows that we’ve got a pattern going.”