By Niclas Bez
On Jan. 28 the Saint Leo Men’s Basketball team took down the University of Tampa on their home court for their third straight victory. Just three weeks ago the Lions lost to a talented Tampa team on the Spartan’s home field.
For the most part the game was very close with big efforts from both teams to stop each-others strong offensive players. Then, in the last ten minutes the Saint Leo team got on a streak scoring twenty points, while pressuring Tampa’s offense.
The Lions’ defense was a key to success in this low scoring game. In the last ten minutes of the game, they held the Tampa Spartans back to only free throws, which gave them the edge that it took to win.
Justin Satchell was the highest scoring player for the Lions with nine-teen points followed by Tyreece Brice and Antoine Tobias with thirteen and ten points. Marcus Dewberry, who previously earned an SSC athlete of the week award, scored ten points as well.
“I am really proud of our guys tonight and the effort they gave. We played lock-down defense down the stretch and that’s what helped us take down a talented Tampa team. To keep a team from making a field goal in almost 10 minutes, truly shows how hard our guys have been working on executing and paying attention to the details,” said Saint Leo’s head coach Vince Alexander.
Overall, the Lions have a season score of 10-10 and a 4-6 in the Sunshine State Conference. Next up the Lions will have more conference games, where they will be facing Florida Southern, Barry, and Lynn University. These last games will be important in order to qualify for the post season tournaments of the Conference and the South Region.
