Bowling Green-FIU: The Falcons Defense Steps Up, Shuts Down Panthers

Dee Brown had a season high 20 points as Bowling Green (2-3) got a much-needed win over Florida International (2-7) 67-62. Scott Thomas added 10 points for the Falcons.

Bowling Green had a 39-26 lead going into the half, but got outscored 36-28 by the Golden Panthers in the second half. The lack of shooting consistency mired the Falcons and let the Golden Panthers back in the game.

Bowling Green shot 48 percent from the field, but continued its three-point shooting woes going 25 percent from behind the arc. The 14 turnovers came mostly in the second half as Bowling Green turned in another sloppy second half performance.

When the time came to step up Otis Polk answered the call with his 11 rebounds and seven points. His defensive leadership helped the Falcons jump out to a 38-24 advantage on the boards, and a 7-4 advantage with blocks.

The defense has been impressive to date for a team that is still rebuilding, but the offense has struggled in consistently finding a scorer. Each game a new player steps up as the leading scorer, but then struggles to maintain that level of play. Otis Polk and Scott Thomas have been solid up to this point, but still have disappeared in games when they were needed to score.

The guard play is the main reason for this considering the lineup changes and lack of consistent scoring from both Dee Brown and Joe Jakubowski. Dee Brown’s performance here hopefully is something he will build on and develop into that perimeter shooter the Falcons are looking for.

The Falcons will face Savannah State on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. This stretch of games will be a good opportunity for Bowling Green to get its season back on track, considering the next three games could be easy wins for the struggling team.