Fuqua School’s varsity boys basketball team was sluggish early against visiting Banner Christian School on Friday, but the Falcons improved to end up with a solid 63-52 victory.

“I thought that we came out and started really slow in the first half,” Fuqua Head Coach Mike Edwards said. “Granted we were up nine. I just felt as if we did not play how I expect my teams to play, and when we came out in the third quarter, they played how I expected my teams to play.”

Entering the game, Banner Christian had only one loss, while the Falcons were at .500 — 3-3.

“They didn’t have the level of focus that they needed to (have) coming out and playing against a team like that,” Edwards said of his players. “Banner Christian’s a great team. They’ve had some really big wins thus far this season. … They (were) 4-1 for a reason.”

Fuqua (4-3) returns to action in the Atlantic Shores Christmas Tournament on Dec. 21 and 22. The Falcons will first face off against First Colonial High School.