The Santa Fe Saints fought back from a 20 point, first half deficit but couldn't finish the job in a 77-62 loss to The College of Central Florida in the SF gymnasium Saturday afternoon.

"This was a very physical game and I am very proud of our guys for battling from start to finish," said SF head coach Chris Mowry. "CF is one of the top teams in the state and they came ready to play today."

The Patriots (22-5, 7-2 Mid-Florida Conference) seemed to have the game at hand when they opened up a 20-point lead with just under seven minutes to play in the first half. The number four team in the state maintained the comfortable margin well into the second half.

But a pair of free throws by Yaw Obeng-Mensah started a 26-13 run by the Saints who found themselves trailing by only six at 63-57 with seven minutes to play.

"I felt like we expended a lot of energy to cut the lead down to six and we just didn't have enough left in the tank to finish the job," said Mowry.

Obeng-Mensah led the Saints with 16 points while Nikola Jerotic chipped in with 15 and Noah Thorp scored 10.

The Saints were outrebounded by the Patriots 49-28 and the Patriots' bench outscored the Saints bench 36-9.

SF (10-16, 2-7 MFC) will travel to Daytona on Wednesday to take on Daytona State College.

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