Second Half Surge Carries Panthers to Victory

Sam Daniel scored 32 points in the Panthers win on Monday
Photo credit: James Ragan Photography

Sam Daniel and Robert Booth led the charge Monday night, as the Florida Tech Panthers scored 65 second half points, en route to a 99-77 victory over the Point Skyhawks in the final game of the Florida Tech Winter Classic.

Daniel finished with 32 points and 12 rebounds, while Booth scored a career-high 20 and pulled down 11. It was his third double-double of the season.

The final score is not indicative of how close this game was in the first half, as the Panthers struggled to get anything going. Joshua Tolbert gave the visitors a spark when he went on an individual 8-0 run with 15:39 left in the half, turning an 11-9 Panthers lead into a 17-11 deficit.

Daniel hit a three with 14:18 left in the half, to stop the Tolbert show. The Skyhawks went on a bit of a run again, going up 23-16 at one point and still led by seven with just over 10 minutes to go in the half. consecutive threes by Patrick Anderson, Michael Milligan and Jordan Majors finally got the Panthers back on top, 27-25 with 8:19 left in the half.

The two teams went back-and-forth from there, but the Panthers starters seemed out of sync for much of the half and with 3:46 left, head coach Billy Mims emptied the Florida Tech bench, as the starters became spectators.

The second and third string guys held their own, holding the Skyhawks to four points and scoring four. Milorad Rajovic had an offensive rebound and put-back and Max Fischer scored on a layup. With that, the Panthers hung in, only down 38-34 at the half.

“I was frustrated, very frustrated,” said Mims. “We went to the locker room down four and I felt like we hadn’t executed a single possession. It was a pick-up game in the first half and I give credit to Point for that. They were aggressive and scrappy and we went away from just settling down and running our offense.”

Mims credits the bench guys for getting the Panthers back into their rhythm and slowing the pace down, something the starters did not do. Mims said that last two minutes was the turning point in the game.

Daniel finished the first half with 15, but no other Panther had more than five. Things turned around in the second half. With the Panthers down 40-34, Daniel hit a three, 33 seconds into the half. He then hit one of his two free-throws, to make it a two-point game and came back with another three with 18:46 left, to give the home team a 41-40 lead.

The Skyhawks (2-12) eventually tied the game at 56, with 11:49 left, but a three by Rafael Casanova with 8:51 left, gave the Panthers a 66-61 lead and they started to pull away at that point.

With 5:48 left, a technical foul was called on Point coach Darryl Slack, who did not agree with a foul called on the floor. That resulted in four foul shots for Majors, all of which were good and that put the Panthers up 78-66.

“It’s tough when you play that hard and then see another team start to pull away,” said Mims. “That’s when you have to stay in control of your emotions. While they did a great job of controlling the tempo against us, they lost control of their emotions and that moment when Jordan makes four straight free throws and it opens up the game a little bit, from that moment on I thought we were really in control and we just pulled away.”

While the Panthers shot 12-for-25 (34.3 percent) in the first half, they were on fire in the second half, shooting 19-of-32 (59.4 percent). They were 14-of-33 from long range, with Daniel making half of those.

Florida Tech (9-4) out rebounded the Skyhawks 48-31, including 15-5 on the offensive glass. That helped the Panthers to 21 second chance points. The Skyhawks did not score a single second chance point.

For more info: Point @ FL Tech Box Score

The Panthers return to action December 30, for a key conference game at Lynn. Tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. They will then travel to Fort Myers on New Year’s Eve, to take on Division I Florida Gulf Coast at 1:00 p.m. That game will be available on ESPN 3.

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