February 15, 2017

Gainesville, FL – The Saints (17-10, 2-5 MFC) overcame a slow start on Wednesday evening to defeat the Florida State College-Jacksonville Bluewave 83-78, outscoring FSC-J 49-43 in the second half.

"This was a good win over an FSC-J team that played very hard all 40 minutes," said SF Coach Chris Mowry.  "Our guys weren't ready to go the first few minutes and they took advantage of it.  We ended up with a nice boost off the bench from Darrell Jones in the first half, and a great second half from Jakob Dawkins."

Dawkins had the best game of his collegiate career, scoring 25 points, including six three pointers.

The Bluewave led by 11 points midway through the first half.  Over the next eight minutes the Saints outscored FSC-J 23-12 to take their first lead since the 18:06 mark, 34-33.  The Bluewave scored the final bucket of the half and took a one point lead into the locker room.

"At halftime we talked about needed to match their intensity in the second half," said Mowry.  "I feel like we did that all 20 minutes."

The Saints were a different team offensively in the second half, scoring 49 points while connecting on 60% of their shots and only turned the ball over twice.  Dawkins hit five of his six three pointers in the final frame.

There were nine lead changes in the second half alone and it wasn't until the final minutes when the Saints were able to place some distance between themselves and FSC-J with some clutch free throws.

David-Lee Jones finished the game with a double double, scoring 18 points to go with 12 assists.  Darrell Jones led all bench scorers with 13.

The Saints will now take to the road in their penultimate game of the season against Daytona State College on Saturday at 4:00 PM.  Their final game of the season will be at home on February 22 at 8:00 PM against the College of Central Florida.

For complete schedules, stats, and more information please visit www.santafesaints.com. 

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