Saints Keep Streak Alive With 76-68 Win Over IRSC
The Santa Fe Saints extended their winning streak to six games with a 76-68 win over Indian River State College Monday night at the SF gymnasium.
The Saints win avenges an 80-72 setback at IRSC on November 3rd and gives Head Coach Chris Mowry 301 wins as head coach at SF since 2003. His overall record stands at 301-160 for the Saints and his all-time head coaching record is 345-208.
"Three-hundred wins over 15 plus years speaks to the consistent success of the program," said Mowry. "There have been a lot of very good assistants that have moved on to head jobs themselves and, of course, a lot of very good players. It has been a pleasure."
Monday night the Saints (7-2) watched a 12 point first half lead evaporate as the Pioneers outscored the Saints 23-6 over the final eight minutes to take a 34-31 lead into the locker room.
The Pioneers (8-2) would stretch their lead to nine points at 43-34 three minutes into the second half until the Saints responded with Ryan Leonard hitting for five points and Miles Coleman and Admir Besovic two each to tie the score at 43-43 with 15:30 left to play.
"I thought we did a god job accomplishing what we considered points of emphasis preparing for this game," said Mowry. "We pressured them, boxed out under the basket and took care of the basketball for the most part. This is a really good win for us."
The Saints reached their largest lead of the night at 74-59 with 3:30 to play when Kimar Edwards scored from inside and the Saints maintained a comfortable advantage the rest of the way.
"We finally finished up a game the right way when holding a lead in the second half. We played with composure down the stretch against a very good team," said Mowry.
Leonard scored 14 of his game high 20 points in the second half while Coleman netted 15 of his 18 after the break. Noah Thorp scored his college career high with 12 points off the bench and Besovic scored 11.
The Saints will play again Tuesday night when the host Florida Gateway College for a 7 pm tip off.
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