By: William Burns
On Wednesday, Feb. 20, the Saint Leo Lions men’s basketball team faced off against the Spartans of University of Tampa in a Sunshine State Conference game. Saint Leo went into the game with a record of 9-8 in the conference, and 12-13 overall. Tampa had a record of 6-10 in the conference but had a 12-12 overall record, similar to the Lions.
The Lions started the night off with Yalen Reed, Isaiah Hill, Kyran McClure, Rusty Moorer, and Pape Ngom. Tampa won the tip, but on their first trip down on offense, Pape Ngom came up with a tremendous block, leading the Lions to score on their first possession, on a two-pointer by Yalen Reed. Great defense in the paint by Ngom and Reed led to some quick turnovers by the Spartans, and a few more Saint Leo players got in on the scoring action. Rusty Moorer had a basket along with Ngom and shot 4-4 from the floor until Kyran McClure had the first miss three minutes into the game, with the score of Saint Leo 8, Tampa Spartans 3.
The Lions first three-point basket came after the first set of subs came into the game, and Gintaras Bartaskas knocked down the long-range shot. This three-point shot put the Lions up 13-5 but the lead was soon to be gone. Tampa knocked down several long-range shots on their run, and soon took the lead 16-13. However, the momentum soon shifted again and Ngom blocked an attempted layup off the backboard which was picked up and advanced to Hill for the two-handed slam dunk.
Both teams traded baskets back and forth including another three by Bartaskas. With four minutes left in the first half, the score was tied at 28 points each. Then the Lions offense ran dry for the remainder of the half and in the final minute the score was 35-30 in favor of Tampa until with just seconds remaining McClure hit a three-pointer and was fouled to complete a four-point play. At the end of the half the Tampa Spartans led by one point, 35-34.
A few possessions into the second half, Moorer hit a three to tie the game at 37-37, but the Spartans took back the lead with 39-37 with less than a minute gone in the second half, and put the pedal to the floor for the rest of the second half and outscored the Lions by 20 points, en route to a 21 point victory for the Spartans at a score of 95-74. With this game in the books, Saint Leo falls to 12-14 overall and Tampa rises to 13-12. However, the Lions still have a better conference record at 9-9 than the Spartans do at 7-10.
Freddy Ibrahim, of the Tampa Spartans, was the game’s top scorer. He registered thirty points, boosted by shooting 6-of-10 from behind the arc. He also played physically and got into the paint, resulting in six made free throws. Tampa sported three other players with double digit points.
Moorer led the Lions offense with 22 points on the night while shooting 7-of-15 from the floor and going a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. Bartaskas, the Lion’s premier long-range shooter this game added fifteen points in the contest by hitting 50% of his three-point shots, finishing 5-for-10 from deep. Hill and McClure led the Lions in rebounding with five each.
