Mims Marks 100th Milestone
MELBOURNE, Fla. (men’s basketball) – Tech Men defeat the Spartans of the University of Tampa for Head Coach Billy Mims 100th collegiate career win and the
Panthers first SSC win of the season. Defeating the Spartans with a score of 63-52 puts Tech at a SSC record of 1-3 and an overall record of 5-11.
As the two conference rivals went after each other in the first half, the game kept close as the low scoring game went into half time with Tampa being up
by two at 32-30. Notching the first six points of the game, Tampa got out of the gate running taking a 6-0 lead early in the first half.
Janko Mrksic (Stoney Creek, Ontario) marked Tech’s first bucket of the game and his loan basket of the game five minutes into the half to stop Tech’s
scoring drought.
Over several minutes, the two teams matched basket for basket as they battled to a 14-14 tie with 8:11 on the clock. As the game played on, the score
seesawed back and forth until Tampa’s Chris Evans (Tampa, Fla.) broke his team away to a 26-22 lead. With just over two minutes left in the half and Tampa
leading 28-22, Tech was led by Donovan Woodson (Ft. Washington, Md.) who had a career high of 17 points to go on a 8-to-4 run to claw back to a two point
lead heading into break 32-30.
Just like the start of the game, the Spartans marked the first points of the half and eventually pushed to a five point lead; 37-32. With Woodson leading
the way again off a 3-pt basket tying the game at 38-38 and then retaking the lead at 41-40 off a jumper with 14:59 left on the clock, the Panthers took
control of the driver seat the rest of the game.
At exactly the 13:00 minute mark and Tech leading at 43-40, the Panthers ran wild on a 20-4 run to take total control of the game and take their largest
lead of 19 with just minutes to play in the game at 63-44. Tampa did close the gap to 11 to end the game with a score of 63-52 as the Panthers gain their
first win in the conference.
Leading in scoring was junior point guard E.J. Murray (Rockledge, Fla.) with a game high of 18 points off of 5-for-10 shooting on the night. Murray also
dished out 4 assists and defensively had 3 steals in 39 minutes of play.
With a career high on the night hitting all 6 of his shots from the field and both 3 pointers, Woodson scored 17 points in 22 minutes of play on the night.
Forward Jod Kelley (McCormick, S.C.) had a solid night scoring 8 points and grabbing 8 rebounds in 35 minutes of play. Reservists Justin Sedlak
(Pezinik, Slovakia) and Ryan Ballard (Melbourne, Fla.) combined for 17 points in the win; 9 and 8 respectively. Mrksic, who played through foul trouble,
grabbed 6 rebounds on the night adding to his loan basket in the first half.
Defense was a key part of the Panthers success; as a team Tech caused 22 Spartan turnovers and combined for 10 steals on the night. Tech outscored the
Spartans 28-6 from points off turnovers and dominated Bench points as Tech’s bench scored 34 of the 63 total points. In the end, Coach Mims marks his 100th
collegiate win taking him to an overall record of 100-141 in his years of collegiate coaching. The win also marks the Panthers first SSC win of the
2006-2007 seasons.
Tech’s next opponent will be the Lions of St. Leo University as they travel to St. Leo, Fla. on Saturday, January 13th with a tip time around 4 pm.
Remember, fans can listen live as the game will be broadcasted live via the Florida Tech Panthers website at http://gopanthers.fit.edu by clicking the ‘Listen Live’ Stretch internet icon/logo in the upper right hand corner of
the website. Also check out Florida Today’s story on the game at http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070111/SPORTS/701110339/1002/SPORTS
written by Carl Kotala
Newspaper Box Score
University of Tampa vs Florida Tech
01/10/07 7:30 pm at Melbourne, Fla. (Clemente Center)
At Melbourne, Fla. (Clemente Center)
FLORIDA TECH 63, UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA 52
UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA (8-7, 1-3)
BLACK, Jeremy 5-6 6-9 16; JAMES, Jeff 5-11 3-4 13; EVANS, Chris 2-10 1-2 7;
DRUMM, Connor 1-2 1-2 4; PEZZULLO, Matt 2-4 0-0 4; MOORE, Jeffrey 1-4 0-0 3;
BALL, Johnathan 1-3 0-0 3; LUNDY, T.J. 0-1 1-4 1; BAKER, Jason 0-0 1-3 1;
DAVIS, A.J. 0-2 0-0 0; MASCIO, Scott 0-0 0-1 0; YOUNG, Steven 0-1 0-0 0.
Totals 17-44 13-25 52.
FLORIDA TECH (5-11, 1-3)
MURRAY, EJ 5-10 6-7 18; WOODSON, Donovan 6-6 3-5 17; SEDLAK, Justin 3-7 1-2
9; KELLEY, Jod 2-9 4-5 8; BALLARD, Ryan 2-3 2-5 8; MRKSIC, Janko 1-4 0-0 2;
RICHARDSON, Arthur 0-7 1-3 1; PAROTTE, Edmond 0-0 0-0 0; AGEE, Markus-Alan
0-0 0-0 0; McNALLY, Carl 0-3 0-0 0; ZELLER, Sean 0-2 0-0 0; HILL, Matt 0-0
0-0 0; SALLS, Joe 0-0 0-0 0; STEPHENS, David 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-51 17-27
63.
University of Tampa……….. 32 20 – 52
Florida Tech……………… 30 33 – 63
3-point goals–University of Tampa 5-17 (EVANS, Chris 2-7; DRUMM, Connor
1-2; BALL, Johnathan 1-2; MOORE, Jeffrey 1-4; YOUNG, Steven 0-1; PEZZULLO,
Matt 0-1), Florida Tech 8-21 (BALLARD, Ryan 2-3; WOODSON, Donovan 2-2;
MURRAY, EJ 2-4; SEDLAK, Justin 2-4; ZELLER, Sean 0-1; RICHARDSON, Arthur
0-5; KELLEY, Jod 0-2). Fouled out–University of Tampa-None, Florida
Tech-MRKSIC, Janko; SEDLAK, Justin. Rebounds–University of Tampa 45 (BLACK,
Jeremy 10; EVANS, Chris 10), Florida Tech 30 (KELLEY, Jod 8).
Assists–University of Tampa 11 (MOORE, Jeffrey 3), Florida Tech 8 (MURRAY,
EJ 4). Total fouls–University of Tampa 23, Florida Tech 23. Technical
fouls–University of Tampa-None, Florida Tech-None. A-445
Coach Mims gets 100th win of career
