By Taylor McGillis, Online Editor
The Saint Leo men’s basketball team (13-10, 7-6 SSC) trounced the Sharks of Nova Southeastern (11-12, 5-8 SSC) on Saturday afternoon to secure a winning record for the first time in 14 years. The 5th straight win for the squad came in a 61-49 victory at home in which the Lions dominated from the opening tip.
The Lions jumped out of the gate quickly, reaching a double-digit lead after only two-and-a-half minutes of play. Point guard Marcus Ruh led the Lions in what was surely his best offensive performance of the season, leading all scorers with 26 points (12-16 from the field), a career-high for the junior from Green Bay, Wisc. Ruh was not by himself, though, as Trent Thomas continued his offensive prowess with 15 points including hitting three threes from beyond the arc. Randall’s team as a whole shot 56% for the game, the highest against a conference opponent this season.
The Lions went into the half with a 37-21 lead and continued to expand on it throughout the final 20 minutes. It was the Lions’ inside presence that seemed to be the difference as the team outscored the Sharks 28-14 from inside the key and out-rebounded the team 32-27, 10 of which came from Dominic Robinson. The Lions’ suffocating defensive presence continued as well as the team forced 17 turnovers which were turned into 22 points.
“I thought we came out and we defended really well. We did a nice job with ball pressure and taking control of the paint early on,” head coach Lance Randall said postgame on his team’s defensive effort.
With the Lions winning their last five games in a row, the team now sits tied for third place with Rollins in the Sunshine State Conference with two games remaining. The Lions play host to the Eckerd College Tritons on Wednesday, Feb. 22, and finish up the season on the road against seventh place Barry.
Randall provided some thoughts as his first season at the helm of the Saint Leo men’s basketball program begins to wind down; “It’s great for the program because that was one of our goals right away. It’s important because we have people looking at this program wondering if we’re going to be able to turn it around, I think that says a lot. I think we’re playing some great basketball, but I think we also have bigger fish to fry right now. We have more games to win.”
