Falcons Fly By Warner Royals

TEMPLE TERRACE, Fla. - The Florida College Falcons led wire to wire, finishing off the Warner University Royals, 78-70 on Tuesday night.

The game featured zero ties or lead changes. Florida College used a hot start, primarily provided by Chinedu Okonkwo and Matt Simpson. They jumped out to a 10-point lead pretty early and maintained it for most of the half. At the 9:42 mark, Matt Simpson would finish a tough layup over 6'9 Joc Dickerson of Warner. That basket would give Matt Simpson the record for points scored in a career in Florida College history. A timeout was called as Simpson was swamped by his teammates and applauded by the ruckus crowd. FC would lead 44-33 at halftime.

Florida College extended their lead to 16 at the 11:03 mark of the second half, on a three-pointer by EJ Wynn from Simpson, This would be their largest lead of the contest. Warner did not go away easy, using a 17-4 run to pull within a single possession. The Falcons responded, pushing the lead back to 7 and eventually winning by 8.

The Falcons were led in scoring by Matt Simpson. He scored 23 points, grabbed 7 rebounds, handed out 5 assists, and did not turn the ball over. Bryan Chong added 12 points in a 4-for-4 from three and from the field performance. Chinedu Okonkwo notched an impressive 15 point, 11 rebound double-double. DJ Doakes added 12 points on an efficient 4-of-6 from the field shooting performance to round out the double-digit scorers.

The Falcons shot a scalding 56% from the field. This included 47% from deep. They only shot 17 threes in the contest, much lower than their 28 per game usually attempted. The Falcons coughed the ball up 21 times. That is a season-high for turnovers. The defense was the reason they were able to survive the mishaps. FC held Warner to 35% from the floor and 21% from deep. The Falcons were also plus-15 on the boards.

"What an incredible atmosphere tonight," said Head Coach Chase Teichmann. "We missed our fans. We hadn't played in front of the students since November. They gave us the energy tonight that we needed. This was a good win for us against a quality opponent. They are a very talented group."

The Falcons had lost the last three meetings to the Royals, including a 34-point loss the last time the two teams met in November of 2019. However, this was the first game between the two schools since Teichmann took over as head coach.

The win puts the RV Falcons at 16-2 on the season. Warner drops to 10-8. Up next, the Falcons travel to Fisher College to take on the other FC Falcons on Friday, January 14. Fisher is a fellow Continental Athletic Conference (CAC) opponent. It will be the first conference road game for Florida College this season.