Falcons Survive Versus Brewton-Parker

LAKELAND, Fla. - The Florida College Falcons defeated the Brewton-Parker College Barons in a low-scoring 53-51 contest on Saturday afternoon at Southeastern University.

The neutral-site game did not have many offensive fireworks. The Falcons took a 12-2 lead and would extend it to as large as 18 with 2 minutes remaining in the first half. The Barons only managed 11 points with 1:45 remaining in the half. From then on, BPC scored 11 more points compared to just 2 for FC. The Barons chopped the lead down to 9 at the half, 31-22.

The Falcons extended the lead to 12 in the early second half, but then found themselves in a major scoring drought for the majority of the half. Brewton cut the lead to 3 with 8:29 remaining.

FC would extend it back to 8 with 6:30 left. The Barons wouldn't go away quietly, again getting within 3 with under 2 minutes left.

Matt Simpson, who played much less than 100%, scored a big basket with 1:13 remaining to take a 5-point lead. The Barons would get another offensive rebound and put it back in to make it a one-possession game again with 51 seconds left. FC would miss but grab the offensive board on the following possession, forcing Brewton to have to foul.

Ladarron "Phat" Cleveland calmly knocked in two free throws with 15 seconds to regain the 5-point advantage.

BPC wouldn't let the entertainment stop, scoring a layup with 10 seconds left off of a sideline out-of-bounds play.

Simpson would be intentionally fouled and make both, to redeem himself from Thursday night. The lead was back to 5 with 8 seconds left.

Stop us if you've heard this before, Brewton-Parker would come down and nail a step back, corner three-pointer with 1.3 seconds left to cut the lead to two. FC inbounded the ball to Simpson on a long pass beyond half court, and the clock expired.

The Falcons were led in scoring by Chinedu Okonkwo. The senior center had 15 points and 10 rebounds to round out the double-double. Matt Simpson was the only other Falcon in double figures, scoring 11 points.

The Falcons shot a putrid 33.3% from the field, 18.2% from three, and 55.6% from the charity stripe. The 53 points scored is a season-low by far. The previous low was 66 against Middle Georgia on November 30. The win puts the Falcons at 12-1 on the year.

"Glad to get the victory," said Teichmann. "Neutral site game against a familiar opponent. We played our worst offensive game of the year. Give them credit, they took us out of our game. We didn't rebound the ball today which is extremely disappointing. We just have so many areas to work on. It's frustrating but it's our reality right now."

The Falcons will get two days' rest before they travel up to Cleveland, Georgia. They'll take on the 7-4 Truett-McConnell University Bears at 11:00 AM on Tuesday morning.