Joe Scott saw this coming early. He called a timeout just two minutes into the game. He made an uncharacteristic wholesale, four-player substitution three minutes later.

Things never really got better for any sustained amount of time.

The Falcons fell 65-40 to Fresno State – a season-low offensive output – on a snowy Tuesday night that brought just 545 fans to Clune Arena.

The arena wasn’t the only place lacking energy, and that’s what bothered Scott the most.

“What I’ve tried to coach and get these guys to understand is sort of the grit and fight you’ve got to have and the willingness and eagerness to be involved in that,” said Scott, who is starting three freshmen and a sophomore in his second season in his second stint with the team. “That is part of this growth, as you go through in this league, you’ve got to have that. You’ve got to have that first and foremost.”

Air Force (10-16, 3-12 Mountain West) needed “determination” and “fortitude” – two other words Scott used in a postgame press conference – to overcome the challenge that faced them on Tuesday. Center Orlando Robinson, a 7-foot NBA prospect who drew at least three scouts to Air Force despite the snow, scored 26 points, hitting 8-of-12 from the field and 10-of-11 from the line. Isaiah Hill added 15 points and another 7-footer, Braxton Meah, made both of his shots and grabbed eight rebounds.

The Bulldogs (17-10, 7-7) shot .57.5% from the field and were 14 of 16 from the line.

Air Force attempted just three free throws (making all three) and was 30% from the field.

Leading scorer A.J. Walker went 0-for-9 from the field, enduring his first scoreless game in nearly two years. Guard Ethan Taylor scored just two points.

The shots weren’t falling, and there wasn’t another variable present to overcome it.

“We came out flat,” freshman Jake Heidbreder said after scoring a team-high 14 points – his fourth consecutive game in double figures. We started terrible. … We just need to keep bringing energy as much as possible and play our hardest every game.”

The Falcons have now lost eight in a row.

“Maybe this will be the game we look back at one day if we get to be like that,” Scott said, envisioning a day when the team, to a man, consistently brings the kind of energy and execution he expects. “Maybe we look back and say, ‘Remember that game when that wasn’t us, and that was part of the growth process for these guys?’ I know that’s how I’m going to approach it.

“I’m going to remember this game.”