Paul Holmes and Terrance Mitchell sank 3-point field goals to start a late 10-point Faulkner State run Monday afternoon that cemented a 62-49 Sun Chiefs win over Snead State of Boaz in the first round of the Alabama Community College Conference/Region 22 Men’s Basketball Tournament in Muscle Shoals.

Snead trimmed a 46-33 Faulkner lead to 52-46 on a free throw by Kordel Alexander, then Holmes launched his 3-pointer on FSCC’s next possession. The Parsons missed a 3-pointer on their next possession and Mitchell banked in a shot-clock-beating 26-footer to put the Sun Chiefs up by double digits again.

Patrick Grant converted a one-and-one free-throw situation on Faulkner’s next possession, and Holmes put in a layup with just under a minute to play, upping the FSCC lead to 62-46. Alexander sank a 3-pointer for Snead for the game’s final points.

Jonathan Moore and Holmes posted double-doubles to help the Sun Chiefs, who started the season 1-8, to their third straight win and sixth in seven games. Moore, who was 7-for-11 on field goal attempts including one missed 3-pointer, scored 14 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Moore reversed those numbers, finishing with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Mitchell contributed 13 points and four rebounds.

The win sent Faulkner into a Wednesday afternoon second-round game against Lawson State of Birmingham. Lawson, the tournament’s No.2 seed from the North Division, received a first-round bye.

“It wasn’t one of our better games, and I didn’t think our effort was as good as it has been,” FSCC coach Jack Robertson said, even though his team shot 54.8 percent from the floor and sank three of its five 3-point attempts. “We got up 11 and it seemed like we tried to keep from losing instead of trying to win the game,

“We’ve gotta get a little better. We’ve definitely gotta shoot free throws better. Our free-throw shooting was just horrible, but, boy we hit some big shots when we had to,” Robertson said, “and Paul stepped up and hit a three down there where we were trying to run the clock.”

Faulkner sank just half of its 26 free-throw attempts while Snead went 15-for-21 for 71.4 percent at the charity stripe.

Robertson said his team “made some really poor passes a few times, and you’ve gotta give Snead credit. They just got up there and got in our craw, and we’re gonna see that for 40 minutes tomorrow.”

The Sun Chiefs committed 19 turnovers that led to 14 Snead points, but they controlled the backboards, out-rebounding the Parsons 38-27, including getting 38 defensive caroms to Snead’s nine offensive boards off the Parsons’ missed shots. Snead went just 15-for-57 from the floor for 26.3 percent and sank only four 3-pointers in 24 attempts, 16.7 percent.

FSCC never trailed after scoring the game’s first four points and building an early 8-2 lead. Snead, playing without several players, including both of its starting guards, who were ruled academically ineligible, closed to 8-7, then Faulkner reeled off nine straight points

A 3-pointer by Snead’s Ricky Merrill made it a 3-point, 24-21 game late in the first half, which the Sun Chiefs closed with a 5-0 run for an eight-point lead at the break.

Backup point guard Cedric Freeman also played a pivotal role in the FSCC win, three times driving to the basket and drawing fouls from Snead’s Gerald January, who is the ACCC’s leading shot blocker. The 6-foot-7, long-armed January blocked three shots in the game and finished with eight rebounds to lead the Parsons, but went 0-for-5 shooting and finished with two points before fouling out.

The 5-8 Freeman had eight points and three assists off the bench. Josh Spears led Snead with eight points. Alexander Kordel and Mark Harp scored seven points each for the Parsons, who entered the game averaging 84.37 points per game and finished with a 23-9 record.