Billy Mims Earns 600th Victory as Panthers Defeat Sailfish
Majors scores 32 points to guide Florida Tech
to 86-77 come-from-behind victory over PBA
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Florida Tech (12-14, 7-11 SSC) outscored Palm Beach Atlantic (14-15, 8-10 SSC) by 14 points in the second half and came back from a double-digit deficit to knock off the Sailfish, 86-77, in Sunshine State Conference action at Rubin Arena.
The win gives head coach Billy Mims 600 for his head coaching career, at both the professional and collegiate level. As a college coach, Mims has 283 total victories including 195 at Florida Tech. He is the all-time winningest coach in FIT men’s basketball history.
“It’s funny how milestone wins seem to come down to the game that it happens in, but it’s actually so much more than that one game,” stated Mims. “To me it’s about all the people who helped make it possible, the great assistant coaches that I’ve had the opportunity to work with, all the talented players that I’ve been fortunate to coach, the presidents, athletic directors, and owners who hired and believed in me and gave me a chance to go to work every day doing what I love so much.
“And I have to thank my family for all their support and sacrifice. It’s not easy being the family of a coach and having to go through all the ups and downs, highs and lows, wins and losses. My wife Lynne and my three children have been such a wonderful support group season after season.”
Leading the Panthers to this memorable win was Jordan Majors who recorded his second straight 32-point game to go along with seven rebounds and three assists. The redshirt-senior now has six 30-plus point outings this season.
Valur Valsson finished one assist shy of a double-double, ending the game with 13 points and nine assists. Sam Daniel tallied 11 points, three rebounds and three assists. Richard Coil produced 10 points and 10 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the season.
The Sailfish controlled early on, jumping out to a 29-14 lead with 9:02 remaining in the first half. PBA led 38-25 with just over four minutes to go but a 9-0 run by the Panthers, capped by a trey from Michael Milligan, made the score 38-34 with 1:38 left on the clock.
PBA pushed its lead back to eight on a fastbreak layup by Jules Jasmin with 30 seconds to go. However, a three-point play by Coil with five seconds remaining made it a five-point game, 42-37, at halftime.
Similar to the first half, the Sailfish controlled the early moments of the second period and led 53-42 at the 16:07 mark. From there the Panthers took over and outscored the home team, 23-7, to grab a 65-60 lead with 6:54 remaining.
Florida Tech led the rest of the way, building its lead to as much as 12 points, 78-66, with two minutes to go and then cruised to its sixth conference road win of the season and No. 600 for Coach Mims.
“At the half, I simply asked our players to give 100% effort on every possession and leave their hearts out there on the court, and they did,” Mims said. “The ice cold Powerade cooler that they dumped on me in the locker room after the game was a moment to share with this team that I’ll never forget.”
The Panthers will look to make it No. 601 when they are back in action next Wednesday, Feb. 21, hosting Embry-Riddle in SSC action. Tip-off for the game is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Clemente Center. Fans can access live coverage of the action at FloridaTechSports.com/live.
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