The Presbyterian College men's basketball team fought back to a single-digit deficit early in the second half but a 12- 2 run by the Falcons quelled the rally and gave Bowling Green the 67-45 win in the first game of the Cancun Challenge being held Nov. 26-27 in Cancun, Mexico.
PC falls to 1-6 overall, while Bowling Green improves to 2-3. The Blue Hose continue Cancun Challenge action Wednesday, Nov. 27 against Georgia Southern or Oral Roberts at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Jordan Downing led the Blue Hose effort with 14 points, followed by William Truss with 12 points and eight rebounds. Anthony Henderson paced the Falcons with 17 points and Cameron Black with 12 points and 14 boards.
The Blue Hose shot 30.6% from the field and were 10-of-19 from the charity stripe. BGSU shot 56.9% and held the slight 34-28 edge on the boards.
PC opened the second half with five straight, all from Downing, in the first 40 seconds to cut the lead to nine, 24-33, with 19:20 to go in the game. Bowling Green made it 11 with a basket by Clarke, before extending the lead to 13 with 16:44 left.
The Blue Hose cut the deficit to eight, 41-33, off a jumper by Downing and a three-pointer by Dillard, but the Falcon offense came alive, rattling off the next 12 of the game's 14 points to take their largest lead of the game to that point at 17, 52-35, with 10:51 remaining.
Bowling Green led by as much as 24 late in the half before settling on the 22-point, 67-45 win.
Bowling Green hit on all cylinders early, jumping out to a 7-0 lead with 17:06 left in the first half. Truss gave the Blue Hose their first point of the game with a free throw at 16:39. Neither team scored the next three minutes until Falcon Black hit a layup with 13:44 left to go up 9-1.
A defensive battle the first10 minutes, Bowling Green expanded its lead to 18-5 with 9:42 on the clock. PC used a basket by Truss and three-pointer by Dillard to make it a 12-point game, 10-22 at 7:41, before BGSU used a 7-2 run to build a 29-12 lead at the 4:53 mark.
A three-pointer by Truss and Downing made it a 12-point game again at 19-31 with just over a minute to go before Henderson's jumper with 42 seconds remaining gave Bowling Green the 33-19 halftime lead.
