Five Saints men's basketball players scoring in double figures wasn't enough to advance to the second round of the Mid-Florida Conference tournament as the team fell to the College of Central Florida Patriots 92-81 Monday, February 25.

The Saints ended the first half just five points behind after a 24-17 start, but the Patriots took advantage of three Saints turnovers to go on an 8-0 run to close out the half 38-32 in their favor.  

The second half saw the Patriots pull away, but not before offensive efforts by the Saints kept the game close with 11 lead changes throughout the game. Unfortunately, the Saints could not survive the Patriots' three-point attacks and points off turnovers.

"Same story all year - too many turnovers to beat a good team," states Saints head coach Chris Mowry. "The first three games against CF, we played well enough to win. Tonight we didn't."

It didn't help that the Saints played two days ago, therefore not getting much time to rest between games. "CF had a bye on Saturday, so they were rested and ready," continued Mowry, "Ivan (Smith) and Brady (Fernandes) were both banged up, which hurt."  

Mowry added "Noah (Thorp) and Kimar (Edwards) had good games and Admir (Besovic) was really good on both ends of the floor. We will miss our sophomore players but look forward to following their careers at their four-year colleges."

Besovic led the team with 18 points and nine rebounds. Thorp contributed 16 points in the effort and Edwards and Miles Coleman had 11 points apiece.

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