Murray Leads Florida Tech to 106-77 Win
MELBOURNE, Fla. (Men’s Basketball) – Senior All-America candidate E.J. Murray put up 31 points Tuesday night in the
Clemente Center to spur Florida Tech on to a 106-77 victory over the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. With the win the Panthers remain perfect on the
season at 4-0, while UPRM falls to 0-2. Twenty-one of Murray’s points came in the first half, 12 of which were from three-point land. All total, the
Panthers hit 13-of-26 from downtown and were even better from the field, shooting 56.4 percent overall in the win. Reigning Sunshine State Conference
Player of the Week Justin Sedlak finished the night just shy of his third double-double with 19 points and nine boards. “We played
tremendous team basketball tonight,” head coach Billy Mims said. “We had 25 assists on 31 buckets and I’m not sure there’s one negative
thing I can say about this game other than maybe we turned the ball over more than we should have. This was a tough team that won the Puerto Rican National
Championship last year, so we knew we were going to have our hands full. Luckily the guys were ready and we played real well.” It was the visitors
that held the first lead of the game, shooting well from the perimeter, and the game was tied at 11-all with 14:24 to go in the opening half. Tech then
took the lead for good on its next possession with a trey by Murray. The Tarzans cut their deficit to two at 10:52 on a layup by Luis Ramirez, but that’s
as close as the visitors would get. The Panthers pulled away and took a 52-34 lead into halftime. The second half didn’t go much better for UPRM and
Tech’s lead swelled to as many as 30 points at the 11:34 mark on a three-pointer from Arthur Richardson to put the Panthers up 87-57. The
lead was 30 once more with 6:51 to go after Demetrius Harvey hit a free throw to make the score 93-63. When it was all said and done, the
Panthers walked away with a 29-point victory. Tech saw a lot of playing time from its bench in the win with the 11 non-starters contributing 22
points and 18 of the team’s 53 rebounds. The Tarzans finished with 41 boards. For the third time this season, the Panthers shot over 50 percent from the
field, while UPRM was held to just 34.2 percent shooting. The Tarzans were led by Ramirez with 18 points, while Diego Garcia and Williset Del Valle
had 14 and 11, respectively.
The Panthers continue their home stand Friday after the Thanksgiving break. Tech plays host Puerto Rico-Cayey with the women tipping off at 2 p.m. and the
men to follow at 4.
