Gainesville, FL.- The #2 ranked team in the country (NJCAA) left Gainesville still undeafeated as the Saints fell short on Wednesday night.  The Falcons were able to establish their offense early in the first half keeping the Saints on the heels.  Even though the Falcons kept the lead the entire game the Saints showed tremendous tenacity. 

How It Happened:

The Falcons started out shooting the ball well lead by Josue Grullon who hit 3 triples within the first few minutes (4 triples in the first half).  They also pressured the Saints on defense and successfully forced key turnovers to keep the Saints trailing the entire first half.  Macius Trowe put up 13 points and made key rebounds to help keep the Saints withing striking distance.  The score at the half was 50-34.

In the second half, the Falcons continued to play at a fast pace making it hard for the Saints to keep up.  The Falcons made 6 triples (12 total) and the Saints made only 3 triples in the second half (4 total).  With just under 15 minutes left in the game the Falcons were up 62-42.  They were up as much as 29 points by the 6 minute mark.  

The Saints showed their grit by cutting the lead down to 14 points lead by Tre Munson and Ashton Lovette with just a few minutes remaining forcing Daytona State to check their starters back into the game.  However, the Saints failure to get a much needed stop with time running out proved to be fatal.  The Falcons proved to be unstoppable on offense, which ultimately caused the Saints to fall short despite their late game push.  

Quote From Coach Mowry:

"Good job by Daytona tonight.  They are a very good team.  Offensively, they spread you out with three point shooters and they have guys that could drive by you as well.  Defensively, they switched everything and played really good help defense.  I'm proud of our team for playing hard until the end.  We've got another tough one on Saturday against Eastern Florida.  We need to keep working hard at practice to be ready for them."

Up Next:

The Saints will face Eastern Florida State College on Saturday January 13th @4pm in Gainesville.