Falcons Take Down Toppers

TEMPLE TERRACE, Fla. - The Florida College Falcons (8-5, 3-3 SSAC) defeated the Blue Mountain College Toppers (7-4, 1-4 SSAC) 95-89 on Saturday afternoon.

The Falcons got off to a good start, scoring the first 4 points of the game. They would later hold a 12-6 edge with 15 minutes remaining in the first half.

Jonah Simpson made a jumper at the 11:26 mark in the first half to take BMC's first lead of the game, at 21-20.

The Toppers went on a run to take an eleven-point lead with 1:54 remaining in the first half.

Back to back triples from Stefan Nakic-Vojnovic and Jacob Roark plus a Roark free throw would cut the deficit to 4 at the half.

BMC made the first two buckets of the second stanza. They led by 8 with 19 minutes remaining.

Down 57-61, the Falcons used a 20-7 run to take a nine-point lead at the seven-minute mark.

The Toppers would not go away easily. They continued to chip into the Falcon's lead late.

The Falcon's strong free throw shooting ended up securing the win for them.

The game featured nine lead changes and was never tied again after starting 0-0.

"This was a nice win for us against a solid conference opponent," claimed Pat Todd. "We had some guys step up really big for us today. We shot it really well in the second half. We will get back to work real soon with three games this week."

The Falcons were led in scoring by Matt Simpson with 23 points on 7-for-11 shooting. Simpson also grabbed 4 rebounds and dished out 5 assists. Four other Falcons reached the double-figure scoring benchmark. Jacob Roark scored 21 points, snagged 5 rebounds, and had 4 assists. Stefan Nakic-Vojnovic poured in 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including 5-of-7 from deep. He also led the Falcons in rebounding with 6. Andrew Voss put up a respectable 12 points and 5 rebounds, while Kent Hegarty tallied 11 points and five rebounds in his second game back.

FC shot a better percentage from the field, three-point line, and free throw line than the Toppers. They were outrebounded in the game. The Toppers grabbed 20 offensive rebounds.

FC also turned it over 16 times, compared to just 8 by the Toppers. The 15 made three's was the second highest total on the season. The 81.8% free throw shooting was a season-best.

This was the first meeting between the two schools.

Florida College returns to action on Monday night when they'll take on the Welch College Flames at 6 PM (ET). This will be the last non-conference game of the regular season. It will also end the 10-game home stand that they Falcons have been on.

Be sure to follow the Florida College Athletics account on twitter @FC_Athletics_ and the men's basketball account @FC_Hoops_