In Tuesday’s loss to Colorado State, Air Force twice ran a play in which junior Evan Washington drove into the lane to free freshman Todd Fletcher for a 3-point shot.

Both times, a Ram defender left Fletcher to help on Washington. And both times, Washington fed the ball to Fletcher in the corner for open 3s.

Both attempts missed, however, so Fletcher, according to coach Jeff Reynolds, suggested the Falcons run the same play for junior forward Tom Fow, the team’s finest pure shooter.

“We did,” Reynolds said. “And they never left (Fow alone in) the corner.”

That’s happened throughout Air Force’s Mountain West Conference schedule. And when the Falcons play at No. 17 BYU this afternoon at 4, the Cougars likely will be doing their best to limit Fow’s uncontested looks from the perimeter.

“It’s definitely been more difficult in conference than in nonconference play to get open shots,” said Fow, who leads Air Force with 36 made 3-pointers.

Indeed, in the 10 nonconference games in which Fow played, he took 51 3s and made 21 (41.2 percent). In 10 MWC games he’s 15-of-42 (35.7), though he’s made the most of limited opportunities lately, draining 7-of-10 3s in the Falcons’ past three games.

Reynolds said Fow, who is best at catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, needs to diversify his game so teams can’t close out on him so quickly. Fow agreed, noting he needs to work on moves off ball fakes: faking a 3-point shot and then driving all the way to the hoop; and faking a 3-point shot, taking one dribble and then pulling up for a jump shot.

“If I can get that down, it adds more tools to the toolbox of offensive skills,” he said.

Air Force needs all the help offensively it can get. The Falcons are averaging a league-worst 51.7 points in MWC games.

Air Force’s Tom Fow Photo by