Daniel, Majors Light Up Rollins in SSC Showdown


Sam Daniel and Jordan Majors combined for 54 points Wednesday, helping the Florida Tech Panthers beat Rollins 90-75, in a Sunshine State Conference game at the Clemente Center. Daniel ended the night with game highs in points, 30 and rebounds with 16. Majors went for 24.

“Everybody knows Sam can score, but he had maybe a career high in rebounds,” said Panthers head coach Billy Mims.

Rollins (5-2, 1-1 SSC) went on an 8-0 run after Majors hit two free-throws to start the game. Patrick Anderson’s three got the Panthers to within three, 8-5 and Anderson hot another three at the 14:36 mark to put the Panthers up a deuce, 10-8.

The Tars went on another run, running their lead up to 19-12 before Rafael Casanova and Daniel hit threes, tying the game at 19. Casanova would leave the game with 5:48 left in the half, after going down in the lane. He sprained his ankle and did not return.

The Panthers (6-3, 2-1 SSC) kept the momentum going through the rest of the first half, despite losing Casanova, going from seven down to eight up and leading 38-30 at the half.

“We stepped up or defensive effort,” said Mims, when asked about the first half. “That was a 15-point swing over the last 11 minutes of the first half.”

Majors (20) scored 24 points on Wednesday
Majors had 15 points at the half and Daniel had 12 points and eight rebounds.

It was more of the same to start the second half for the Panthers, as they jumped out to a 49-32 lead before the first media timeout at 15:59. Robert Booth, who finished with nine points for the Panthers, had a dunk at the 17:09 mark, that got the crowd jacked up.

“He’s just having a great senior season,” said Mims of Booth. “He’s been mobile, he’s been active and he plays with a lot of passion. He just brings a real interior toughness to our team.” Booth ended one point shy of a double-double, with nine. He had 12 rebounds

That meant that Rollins managed just one basket in the first 4:01 of the second half. Jeff Merton hit a three out of the timeout for Rollins, to cut the Panthers lead to 14. He was the Tars’ leading scorer on this night, with 20 points.  

FIT stretched the lead to 21 points three different times in the contest and Rollins never got closer than 12 the rest of the way.

“The last 10 minutes of the first half and about the first five minutes of the second half, our defense was about as good as it could get,” said Mims.

For more info: Rollins @ Florida Tech Box Score

Next up for the Panthers is another conference home game against Nova Southeastern, on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

“They are very similar to Rollins,” said Mims of Nova. “They’re gonna come in here and probably play all zone. They got a lot of firepower and a lot of good shooters. We’re gonna have to shoot the ball well, we’re going to have to rebound and we’re going to have to defend, like we did against Rollins tonight.”


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