Joe Scott pored over the box score after Air Force’s game against Sacramento State on Wednesday.

The Falcons had just six turnovers, 14 assists on 18 made shots and led the entire first half. But those free-throw numbers forced the Air Force coach to rub his eyes in frustration.

Air Force shot 10 of 18 at the line in the first half and finished the game 17 of 29 in the Falcons 63-61 loss to the Hornets at Clune Arena.

“It’s actually 17 of 32 because we missed three one-and-ones,” Scott said. “There’s a certain level of intensity that’s required to win a basketball game. Winning is hard. A certain level of drive and intensity is required at all times … The last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half hurt us a lot, and we didn’t make foul shots.”

The Falcons (2-5) led 27-13 with 3:58 left in the first half, but the Hornets (2-4) closed the gap to 33-22 at the break.

Sacramento State then opened the second half on a 10-0 run to cut the lead to 33-32 with 17:36 on the clock.

“There’s a flow to the game and when you miss a foul shot the other team sees they’re still in the game,” Scott said. “They feel better because you missed foul shots.

“That’s a maturity thing. I say to our team all the time that maturity is on the board because we’re not a mature team yet. A mature team figures out a way to shoot 70 percent from the free-throw line in the first half.”

Sacramento State took a 34-33 lead with 16:50 left but Jeffery Mills followed with a 3-pointer to give the Falcons a 36-34 lead 28 seconds later.

Mills knocked down three of his four 3-pointers in the second half, and two of his makes gave Air Force the lead shortly after the Hornets went ahead.

His final triple came with 7:49 left in the game to tie the contest at 50-all.

“My confidence is that I’m going to make every shot that I shoot,” Mills said. “The team may sometimes need that from me or they may need me to pass it a bunch.

“They needed me to hit some shots because a lot of us weren’t hitting shots out there. But there are also shots that I could’ve passed up and gotten some more people involved. It’s all a big learning experience and I have a feeling we’ll be better throughout the year.”

Mills shot 7 of 13 from the field, but the Falcons finished the game 18 for 52 including 8 of 28 from beyond the 3-point line.

Ethan Taylor, who was awarded a game ball prior to the contest for scoring his 1,000th career point, finished with 11 points but was 2 of 12 from the floor.

After knotting the score at 50, teams traded scores until the Hornets used a 6-0 run to take a 62-56 lead with 2:32 left in the game.

The Falcons followed with a 5-0 run to close the gap to 62-61 with 1:26 on the clock, and, following a made free throw from Sacramento State’s Bailey Nunn to make it 63-61, Air Force had a chance to tie or win it.

“We ran a play that’s for two types of layups,” Scott said. “The next part of the play was for Ethan to change sides of the court at a time when they think someone is going to try to shoot the ball, we’re cutting to the basket and using the time of the game against them. Unfortunately, we didn’t do those things.”

The Falcons bobbled the ball on the possession and instead of running a play, the Hornets stole the ball for the win.

“I hit Ethan and I slipped,” Jeffery said. “But you can’t hang your head too much on that. You have to move on to the next one.”