Florida Tech Overpowers UPR Rio Piedras

Sam Daniel hits a three during Sunday night's 89-77 victory

The Florida Tech Men’s Basketball team had four players in double figures on Sunday, leading to an 89-77 win over UPR Rio Piedras in the first game of the Florida Tech Winter Classic.

Jordan Majors scored 25 points, Sam Daniel had 24, Patrick Anderson had 15 and Robert Booth had 13. Junior Michael Milligan got the start for the Panthers and he was all over the court defensively. He chipped in four points and four rebounds, to go along with three assists, a block and a steal.

"His numbers look very average, but his game was a lot more than average," said Florida Tech head coach Billy Mims, of Milligan. "We started him with one goal in mind, to guard Omar Font. Against Rollins he had 36 points, so we knew this guy was capable of going off on us. Font ended up with 22 points, he made six shots, but only made four threes'. Mike defended him well and held him to 16 points, he was 6-for-6 from the line when we fouled him on two three-pointers and gifted him those points."

The Gallitos (2-5) lost earlier in the week to Flagler, but led at the half and they took the Panthers Sunshine State Conference foe Rollins to overtime, before eventually losing. With those results in mind, Mims expected a good game and that’s exactly what transpired.

“We knew it’d be competitive,” he said. “At Rollins, they made 24 threes’, they shot 54 and they’ve been averaging about 40 three-point attempts a game. As you can tell, our goal today was to shut down the three and today I felt great about our defense, today, they only made 12 threes’.”

As expected, the three-pointers were falling early for both teams. Majors had an early one that was answered by Gabriel Anglero and got Rio Piedras out to a 10-7 lead. Majors was fouled going to the hoop moments later and finished the three-point play, following the first media timeout, tying the game 10-10, with 14:54 to go.

After Krystian Medina hit a three for the Gallitos to give them a 13-10 lead, the Panthers reeled off 10 straight, highlighted by another Majors three ball. That put the Panthers up 20-13 with 12:34 left. 

UPR Rio Piedras got to within one point a couple times (22-21 and 27-26), but Florida Tech did not trail again. They scored 12 straight points to open a 39-26 lead.

Rafael Casanova hit a three with 15 seconds left in the half, but that was answered at the buzzer with a three from Josue Erazo, closing the gap to 46-35 at the half.

The Panthers outscored the Gallitos 18-4 in the pain in the first half and shot 57.6 percent (19-of-33) from the field in the first half. Majors led the home team with 14 points, while Daniel had 11 and a team high four rebounds.

The second half was pretty even throughout, with UPR Rio Piedras going on a six-point run early, cutting the lead to 49-41. They would later get to within six, 54-48 with 14:59 to go, but the Panthers would then stretch the lead to 15.

A few turnovers by the Panthers would keep the Gallitos in it, as they closed the gap to seven on a three-pointer by Pedro Lopez, with 6:50 left. At that point, it was 72-65, but the Panthers would get things going again. 

Antonis Pefanis and Anderson would bury a couple big threes’ and the Panthers were up 78-65, with 5:49 left. UPR Rio Piedras cut it to eight, with 2:38 left, but would get no closer.

“For the ballgame, they shot 37 percent,” said Mims of UPR Rio Piedras. “When you can hold your opponent to under 40 percent shooting, that’s great defense.”

Robert Booth was 6-for-7 shooting, including a couple dunks and helped the Panthers roll to a 34-20 advantage in points in the paint. Booth finished with 13 points.

For more info: UPR Rio Piedras @ Florida Tech Box Score

The Panthers (8-4) will look to pick up a second consecutive win on Monday, as they will take on Point in the final game of the Winter Classic, at 5:30 p.m.

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