Panthers Rout Tarzans in Home Opener

Sam Daniel (0) led the Panthers with 22 points in Monday's 110-84 victory

After opening the season with two losses in the South Regional Tipoff Classic over the weekend, the Florida Tech Men’s Basketball team took their frustrations out on Puerto Rico-Mayaguez on Monday, with a 110-84 home victory.

“It always feels good to home to the friendly confines of the Clemente Center,” said FIT head coach Billy Mims. “I knew when we got back here we’d shoot the ball better and we knocked down 14 threes’ and that’s the way we’re supposed to shoot the basketball.”

Florida Tech (1-2) allowed five double-digit scorers in both losses in Atlanta. On Monday, they only allowed three and they had five of their own, led by Sam Daniel, who finished with 22, despite having only four in the first half.

“The first half they had a box-and-one one me, pretty much had a player chasing me wherever I went,” Sam said. “It was an excellent job by my teammates stepping up to score the ball and once they saw the team can do what they can do, they let off that box-and-one, then I got going.”

The Panthers were 14-of-33 from behind the arc and coach Mims admitted, that’s likely just the way it’s going to be for his team. “The game of basketball has kind of gone that way,” he said. “Look at the Golden State Warriors last year. I think the world has really embraced the three.”

He pointed out that to get the amount of points they got from 14 threes’, you would have to shoot over 60 percent from inside the arc.

In the early going, the Tarzans stayed with the Panthers, as the score see-sawed back and forth for the first eight minutes. Puerto Rico Mayaguez led and led 21-19 with 12:02 left in the first half, before 

Patrick Anderson drained a three 12 seconds later, to give Florida Tech a 22-21 lead. They never looked back.

Jordan Majors (20) scored 17 points

Anderson was also in double figures with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Jordan Majors was in double-figures for the third straight time (17 points) and Derek Murphy and Rafael Casanova added 16 points each.

Casanova hit a three of his own moments later, making it 25-21. He had a steal and lay-up as well in a short span and Anderson hit another three with 10:37 left, to make it a nine-point game. When all was said, and done in that sequence, the Panthers went on a 14-point run and led 34-21.

“He shot it well and played a very intelligent basketball game,” Mims said of Casanova.

With 7:59 to go, Robert Booth got the crowd into it with a big dunk, extending the lead to 38-23. Anderson followed with another three ball with 7:29 left and the lead was 41-23. “Booth’s dunk got our guys going and elevated our defensive effort,” said Mims. “It got everybody into it.”

With 5:58 left in the half, that defense that Daniel talked about, got the Tarzans into trouble. Daniel and Omar Quiles were jawing back and forth going back up the court.

“There was a little chatter going both ways,” said Mims. “They did want Sam to get off and he was bothering Sam. At that moment, the official gave Sam the first T, basically for taunting. That kid (Quiles) took a swing at Sam, all three officials saw it and they had no choice but to call a flagrant two and ejection.”

Daniel was hit with a flagrant one and no shots were awarded until the Puerto Rico Mayaguez coach showed his displeasure with the ejection and was given a technical, as well. Daniel hit the free-throw and at that point, it was 45-26.

The Panthers led by as many as 26 in the first half and they could let off the gas a bit in the second

half, scoring 45 points, while the Tarzans mustered 44. That said, the three-point barrage continued at a pretty impressive clip, as they hit 7-of-15 (46.7 percent) from three. They were 7-of-18 in the first half (38.9 percent). They shot 42.4 percent from three-point land overall.

For more info: Puerto Rico-Mayaguez @ Florida Tech Box Score

Their overall field goal percentage was 50.7 for the game. They must keep that up on Wednesday, when they open their Sunshine State Athletic Conference schedule against Eckerd, in St. Petersburg.

Patrick Anderson (13) hit 3-of-5 three's and finished with 16 points

“It’s a gauntlet for us,” said Mims of the Panthers’ conference schedule. “I talked to Tom Klusman, the Rollins coach quite a bit while we were in Atlanta and he said, ‘Billy, I’ve looked at all the schedules, nobody has as tough a starting five games as you do.’ Now we played Eckerd who won the conference tournament last year and was in a three-way tie for the regular season championship.”

The Panthers return home Saturday, to take on Barry, who won the regular season last year, won the south region, went to the elite eight and they’re picked to win the conference this year, per Mims. 

Add to that the fact that the Buccaneers are ranked 16^th in the country, and there is no doubt that the Panthers will have their hands full.

The start time of Saturday’s game has been changed to 7:30, with the women playing at 5:30, due to the playoff football game at noon.  

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