Saint Augustine’s College, the CIAA scoring leader, showed it can be defensive-minded as well.

The Falcons made key stops down the stretch in a 77-69 CIAA Western Division men’s basketball victory over Fayetteville State Thursday at Capel Arena. The victory was the fourth straight for the high-flying Falcons, now 10-3 overall, 3-2 in the CIAA and 2-1 in the Western Division.

As usual, the Falcons’ young gunners led the way. Junior forward Nicholas King scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, junior forward Claude Neeley added 17 points and 7 rebounds and junior guard Antonio Fitzgerald scored 14 points. A pleasant surprise was freshman guard Derrick Green who tied a career-high with 11 points off the bench.

But the Falcons, averaging 90 points, relied on their defense to slow the Broncos who were held seven points below their scoring average of 76 points.

A Broncos’ rally cut a 40-28 halftime deficit to 59-58 with 6:59 left but the Falcons went on an 18-11 run to end the game. During the rally, the Broncos were 4 of 10 from the floor and committed three turnovers.

The Falcons held the Broncos to 42 percent shooting and outscored them from the free-throw line 24-30 to 8-17.

The victory was a sweet homecoming win for sophomore forward Deon Dixon, a Fayetteville native. Dixon grabbed 8 rebounds.

The Falcons will be looking for their fifth straight victory against arch-rival Shaw Jan. 21 (Saturday) at Broughton High School’s Holliday Gymnasium. The first game of the doubleheader pits the Lady Falcons against Shaw, the defending CIAA champion, at 5:30 p.m. followed by the men’s contest at 7:30 p.m.

The doubleheaders are home games for Shaw.