Panthers Lose Tight Battle against Lions

MELBOURNE, Fla. (men’s basketball) – The Panthers and Lions for the second time this year take the game down to the last minutes to determine a winner; in
this match up the Lions edged out the Panthers 77-71 at the Clemente Center Saturday evening.

Through most of the first half, the Panthers and Lions battled for nearly sixteen minutes as neither team could gain more than a three point lead. Through
those sixteen minutes, the game matched up in points four times with only one lead change. As the game clock sat on 4:18 and the score marked at 31-27, the
Lions were able to push the biggest lead of seven after a three point basket that put the score to 34-27 with just over two minutes to play. As the game
was heading into intermission, the Panthers put three more points on the board to keep close to the Lions at 36-30.

Not skipping a beat both teams battled for some sort of territory starting the second half and continued to keep it close going through twelve minutes of
play. Just as the Panthers kept close behind trailing by two, the Lions ran off on a 9-1 run pushing their largest lead of the night to ten at 56-46. Again
the Lions would match their largest lead of ten with 5:06 left in the game at 65-55. As the two teams battled through fouls and free throw shots, the
Panthers were able to close the gap and trail only by one point with less than two minutes to play. The free throw shootout continued through the last two
minutes of play as St. Leo came away with the game at the end 77-71. Just in the second half alone the two teams combined for 52 free throw attempts with
the Panthers getting to the line 28 times hitting 23 of them. The Panthers in the game got to the line 35 times and converted on 26 of the attempts.

In the game, Tech was led by E.J. Murray (Rockledge, Fla.) who had the game high of 24 points and hit 10 of his 12 free throws. Carl McNally (Cocoa Beach,
Fla.) contributed 13 points while Ryan Ballard (Melbourne, Fla.) scored 11 points and hit 8 of 10 free throws in the game. A solid performance on both
sides of the courts was shown by Jod Kelley (McCormick, S.C) who scored 9 points, grabbed 10 boards, and had 2 blocks. The Panthers as a team shot well
from the field as they had a game percentage of 42.2% from the field and for the game Tech shot 74.3% from the free throw line hitting 26 of 35.

Tech now 7-18, 3-10 SSC travel to Barry to take on the Spartans on Wednesday, February 14th, in the first game of the double header with a start time of
5:30pm. For more coverage: http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070211/SPORTS/702110345/-1/archives
.

Newspaper Box Score
Saint Leo vs Florida Tech
02/10/07 4:00 pm at Melbourne, Fla. (Clemente Center)
At Melbourne, Fla. (Clemente Center)
SAINT LEO 77, FLORIDA TECH 71
SAINT LEO (12-11, 5-7)
PRAIS, Jordan 3-6 9-11 15; TURNER, J.J. 5-6 0-0 15; ROWLAND, Kyle 3-7 5-6
11; CULLOP, Quentin 2-4 2-4 8; FRAZIER, Alleo 2-3 0-0 6; BANKS, Jonathan 1-4
4-4 6; KAISER, Thomas 2-2 0-0 6; BLUE, Richard 2-6 0-0 5; SHARPER, Eric 1-3
1-2 3; DEWBERRY, Saladeem 0-2 2-4 2. Totals 21-43 23-31 77.
FLORIDA TECH (7-18, 3-10)
MURRAY, EJ 5-13 10-12 24; McNALLY, Carl 4-7 3-4 13; BALLARD, Ryan 1-3 8-10
11; KELLEY, Jod 3-7 3-4 9; PAROTTE, Edmond 1-1 2-2 4; MRKSIC, Janko 2-5 0-0
4; CLARK, Damien 1-2 0-0 2; SEDLAK, Justin 1-2 0-2 2; WOODSON, Donovan 1-2
0-1 2; RICHARDSON, Arthur 0-2 0-0 0; ZELLER, Sean 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-45
26-35 71.
Saint Leo………………… 36 41 – 77
Florida Tech……………… 30 41 – 71
3-point goals–Saint Leo 12-19 (TURNER, J.J. 5-6; CULLOP, Quentin 2-3;
KAISER, Thomas 2-2; FRAZIER, Alleo 2-3; BLUE, Richard 1-4; BANKS, Jonathan
0-1), Florida Tech 7-19 (MURRAY, EJ 4-9; McNALLY, Carl 2-4; BALLARD, Ryan
1-3; RICHARDSON, Arthur 0-1; ZELLER, Sean 0-1; KELLEY, Jod 0-1). Fouled
out–Saint Leo-None, Florida Tech-SEDLAK, Justin. Rebounds–Saint Leo 31
(PRAIS, Jordan 8), Florida Tech 27 (KELLEY, Jod 10). Assists–Saint Leo 17
(CULLOP, Quentin 8), Florida Tech 11 (MURRAY, EJ 4). Total fouls–Saint Leo
26, Florida Tech 24. Technical fouls–Saint Leo-None, Florida Tech-None.
A-560