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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