Balanced Attack Leads FIT over PR Bayamon


Jordan Majors #20

For the second time in seven days, the Florida Tech Men’s basketball team got a win over a visiting team from Puerto Rico. Jordan Majors 20 points led all scorers, in the Panthers 91-77 win over Puerto Rico Bayamon on Monday.  The win comes one week after the Panthers beat Puerto Rico Mayaguez 110-84.

Majors was one assist and one rebound away from a triple-double, finishing with 20, nine and nine.
The Panthers (3-3) were in a battle early, as the Vaqueros scored first on a steal and a hoop by Luis Cuascut. Majors got the Panthers going, scoring eight of their first 12 points.

Florida Tech struggled in the first half defensively. Picking up 12 team fouls, but held a 38-32 lead at the break.

“They’re a tough team to guard defensively because they’re small,” said Panthers head coach Billy Mims. “They’re very quick and there’s nobody in our conference quite like them. They play hard and they’re very scrappy.”

The teams were pretty even after the first half, with Puerto Rico Bayamon shooting 36.7 percent from the field (11-for-30) and the Panthers going for 36.1 percent (13-for-36). The Vaqueros led a couple times in that first half, including a 22-20 lead with 8:01 left in the half.

A three-ball by Antonis Pefanis gave the Panthers a 23-22 lead with 7:44 left and they went on a little run and stretched it to 28-22. Puerto Rico Bayamon did get to within one at 32-31, but the Panthers got it back to seven, with 36 seconds left in the half, making it 38-31 and led 38-32 at the break. They never trailed again.

“I thought we defended really well in the first half, except for the foul trouble,” said Mims. “We had a lot of key players sit on the bench for the first half.”

The one upside to the foul trouble was that other guys got to play some minutes, including Mike Milligan, who’s been out with a knee injury. Milligan scored four of his nine points in that first half and finished 3-of-5 shooting, including one three-pointer.

“We finally got him in a position where he would be healthy enough to play tonight and he came off the bench tonight for 16 minutes,” Mims said. “I think Mike is gonna be an outstanding player for us this year, we just hope he stays healthy and gets back into a rhythm with us.”

Booth #2
The second half was much better for the Panthers, who stayed out of foul trouble and led by as many as 18. Robert Booth had a dunk in the second half, his third in as many home games for the Panthers and Sam Daniel, who had 15 points in the second half, slammed one down with authority with 3:45 left, to make it 82-65.

Daniel ended up with 17 points and Booth ended the night with a double-double, 10 points and 13 rebounds. He came alive in the second half for us,” said Mims of Daniel. “

Pefanis had 19 points, 10 of those coming in the second half. “What a breakout game for a freshman,” said Mims of Pefanis. “He hit seven out of nine shots and four out of six threes’,” said Mims of Pefanis. “He was four out of six from behind the arc.”

For more info: PR Bayamon @ Florida Tech Box Score

This game closes out a stretch of six games in 10 days for the Panthers, who will get a short break before hosting a Thanksgiving tournament on Friday and Saturday.

“There were times tonight I thought we were losing a little bit of legs,” Mims said. “Our guys were a little tired, a little winded, but we’ve played six games in 10 days, that’s tougher than an NBA schedule.”

Things don’t get any easier for the Panthers, who will play Bluefield State College out of West Virginia, at 7:00 p.m. Tuskegee and William Jewell open the Men’s tournament at 4 p.m. ET on Friday.


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