Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Senior night was last week, but the Eckerd men's basketball team was called back for an encore presentation as it hosted Florida Tech in the quarterfinal round of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament.
The second-seeded Tritons (23-6) did not disappoint as they rolled over the seventh-seeded Panthers, 95-70, to advance to the semifinal round against Lynn University.
A pivotal characteristic of the Tritons' success all season long has been their depth, a factor highlighted again in tonight's contest. EC outscored the Panthers (14-15) off the bench, 42-4, as both teams battled foul trouble throughout the contest. In fact,
Drushaun McLaurn led Eckerd with 17 points and 11 rebounds off of the bench while every other sub continued to bring a different look and extra momentum for the Tritons.
"Our depth is one of our keys because there are going to be off nights," said head coach
Tom Ryan. "We have six or seven people with the potential to go off on any given night, and that can only help us."
Five other Tritons joined McLaurn in double-figure scoring.
Ray Darnell shot a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe to finish with 14 points.
Kevin Walsh joined him with 14 while
Obi Kyei followed with 13 points.
E.J. Moody and
Jerrick Stevenson rounded it out with 12 and 10 points respectively.
EC also utilized exceptional offensive execution and defensive pressure to take the victory. The Tritons assisted on 21 of their scoring opportunities, the most since they recorded 32 assists in their 106-87 victory over Eastern New Mexico on December 19. Moody led with five assists while Stevenson dished out four.
EC's high assist count also led to a 53.8 percent shooting performance from the field and 41.7 percent from deep, hitting a total of 10 3-pointers.
On the defensive end, Eckerd forced 12 FIT turnovers which directly led to 17 points for EC.
Ryan also sees this contest as a chance to ready his squad for the next round as Lynn features a similar style of play.
"Our defense was pretty solid tonight as we played against quick athletic guards, and we'll see even more quick and athletic guards against Lynn," he said. "We need to just focus on getting stops and playing defense and that will be the first step for us to win any game."
EC held a 39-32 halftime lead, but a momentum-shifting dunk by
Ray Darnell with 3:05 in the half helped propel Eckerd out of the break.
E.J. Moody hit a jumper on EC's first possession of the second half and FIT responded with a three to cut it to six points. From that point forward, it was all Tritons. It took nearly six minutes for the Panthers to hit another field goal and by that time Eckerd had already extended the difference to over 20 points as the Patrick Anderson jumper made the score 60-40.
The Tritons' largest lead came off of McLaurn's second dunk of the night as
Marco Behori penetrated the lane and dished the ball off the All-SSC Newcomer member.
Jermohn Queen led all scorers with 20 points and six assists.
Eckerd's semifinal contest against the sixth-seeded Fighting Knights will take place on Saturday in Daytona Beach on the campus of Embry-Riddle. The game is set to tip-off at 2:30 PM following the Barry-Saint Leo semifinal game at noon.
