FIT Men Push Win Streak to Five

Patrick Anderson - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography

The Florida Tech Men’s Basketball team beat Nova Southeastern Saturday, 98-90 and in the process won their fifth straight game and have now won seven out of eight, after two straight losses to start the season.

The first half was a back-and-forth affair with Jordan Majors and Patrick Anderson dropping in 12 points apiece. Majors was 4-of-5 from three-point range and Anderson was 2-of-5, leading the Panthers to an 11-of-18 first half, from beyond the arc.

“The difference in the game was clearly in two areas,” said Panthers head coach Billy Mims in his postgame interview with Jim Mitchell. “We made 14 threes’ in the game and we’re shooting the ball as well as anybody in the conference,” he said. “We shot 41 percent behind the arc and when you shoot like that, it’s hard to lose games. The other thing that stood out was how well we passed the basketball, talk about a team effort, we had 26 assists and only 13 turnovers.”

Majors led the Panthers with 26 points, eight rebounds, five steals and six assists, while Anderson had 20, eight helpers and four rebounds.

“He got robbed last week,” said Mims of Majors. “He should’ve been the Player of the Week in the Sunshine State Conference a week ago, I hope they don’t rob him this time. At the end of the day, this guy has had five straight fabulous games. He’s doing some amazing things.”

Michael Milligan hit a three, out of a timeout, with 7:47 to go. Sam Daniel got into the act, helping the Panthers extend the lead to 44-36. The Sharks answered with one of their own, but moments later, Antonis Pefanis drained one and the lead was 47-39, with 3:55 to go.

“Our bench outscored Nova’s bench 21-6, so tonight it wasn’t just about the starting five,” Mims said. Our bench helped us win that game. Milligan had nine points, it’s his high so far and off the bench Pefanis had eight points, three assists and knocked down two big threes’.”

Daniel was held to 11 points, but had seven rebounds. FIT had 34 rebounds as a team.

A three by Majors and a layup from R.J. Coil extended the lead to 52-42 and Majors and Anderson hit three’s, to make it 58-46, before Nova closed the gap to 58-41 at the break.

Robert Booth - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography

The Panthers (7-3, 3-1 SSC) shot 63.9 percent from the field in the first half (23-for-36). The only negative was the foul trouble that they were in. Robert Booth, Derek Murphy and Milligan all had two. Coil had three.

The Sharks (2-4, 1-3 SSC) started the second half on a 6-2 run and cut the lead to 60-57. Majors cut the run down with a three-ball and Nova came back with one of their own. A three-point play by Anderson and a Murphy bucket, got the lead back to eight, 68-60 with 4:40 gone in the half.

Majors got three in a more unconventional way, when he was fouled on a three-point attempt. He made all of them and Anderson followed with a three from way downtown, putting the Panthers up 77-63. They would go up as many as 16 in the game.

Nova Southeastern did reel off five straight and got the Panthers to turn the ball over a few times and got it to an 83-74 deficit. Booth hit a jumper and a dunk to silence the Nova run and get the crowd wound up.

Coil did end up fouling out of the game, but with all the players in foul trouble after the first 20 minutes, it was not as bad as it could’ve been down the stretch. Pefanis hit a three late, making it 91-80 and the Sharks closed things up again, with a 7-1 run.

Majors dunk with 37 seconds left, put the icing on the cake for the home team, making it 96-87 and the Panthers would hang on for the eight-point win.

Harrison Goodrick led the Sharks with a game-high 29 points.

For more info: Nova Southeastern @ Florida Tech Boxscore

Next up for the Panthers is a Sunshine State Conference road game at Tampa on Saturday. The game will tipoff at 4:00 p.m.

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