Falcons Stifle Truett McConnell

CLEVELAND, Ga. - The Florida College Falcons earned a tough road win against the Truett McConnell University Bears on Tuesday morning, 61-50.

The Falcons and Bears played in front of 300 White County elementary schoolers. The atmosphere proved to be quite electric. The Falcons started the game off right, leading 28-14 with 11:06 remaining in the first half after a Ray Cao layup.

Truett used an 18-1 run to take a 3-point lead with 3 minutes remaining in the half. The Falcons answered with a 5-0 run to finish the half leading by 2.

Neither team scored the first 5 minutes of the second half, as the Falcons' offense continued to struggle. The Falcons defense allowed the team to break away, despite the poor shooting performance. FC survived a 1-for-12 from three-point range second half due to holding TMU to 6 made field goals at 21% in the second half. FC also shot a perfect 10-for-10 from the foul line in the half. The Falcons never trailed in the second half.

The Falcons were led in scoring by Matt Simpson. Simpson poured in 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. The 50 points allowed is a season-low for Florida College. However, in three of their last 4 games, FC has allowed 51 points or less. Let's call it good timing for the defense stepping up because the offense has produced its lowest four scoring outputs this season, over the last four games as well.

"We're proud of the team for coming up here to Georgia and playing an early morning game and getting the win on the road," said head coach Chase Teichmann. "Truett is a good team with great athleticism. They did a good job making things tough on us offensively. The shots will start falling but we need to clean up everything else. Very pleased with the defensive effort and attention to detail lately. That will serve us well as the season progresses if we can continue to build on it."

The (RV) Falcons move to 13-1 on the season, Truett McConnell drops to 7-5. The Falcons will head back to Florida and take on the Trinity Christian College Trolls on Friday afternoon in Lakeland, Fla., at Southeastern University for their Christmas Classic. Trinity Christian comes down from Illinois to face the Falcons for the first time in each school's history.