Men's Basketball's Second-Half Surge Leads to 75-65 Win at FSCJ
February 10, 2021

Men's Basketball's Second-Half Surge Leads to 75-65 Win at FSCJ

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Santa Fe College men's basketball was on the road for the first time in Central Conference play, and used a strong second-half performance to get past Florida State College at Jacksonville, 75-65.
 
Neither team could get much separation from the other in the first half as the two sides worked their way into the matchup. The Blue Wave, however, did lead for the majority of the opening frame, establishing a lead that grew to six points and then held at four points at the halftime whistle, 33-29. 
 
The Blue Wave were finding offensive success at the beginning of the second half, and earned their first double-digit lead of the game, 48-38, with a little over 14 minutes remaining.  
 
The Saints slowly began to chip away into the deficit, then used a big run to turn the tide. 
 
Trailing 54-47, Santa Fe started a 14-2 surge to claim a 61-56 lead. That stretch of play began with a fastbreak layup from Hasan Abdul-Hakim, then concluded with a Bradley Douglas drive and finish with 6:53 on the clock.
 
Santa Fe's offense upped the execution during the run, while on the other end, FSCJ was held scoreless for about four crucial minutes.
 
The Saints' appeared more and more confident and comfortable on the floor, eventually pushing their lead to ten points, 70-60, following consecutive baskets from Jay Medor as the clock went under three minutes to play. 
 
A corner three-pointer from Aleksa Medic in the final minute put the game out of reach for good, and the Saints picked up the 75-65 result. 
 
The Saints outscored FSCJ 46-32 in the final half to end a two-game skid, and 28-11 over the final 11 minutes or so.
 
Three different Saints recorded double-digit points. Yaw Obeng-Mensah paced the Saints with 19 points, doing most of his damage from the interior in the second half. Medor put in 17 points, which included three triples to tie for a season-high. Douglas finished with ten. 
 
A Moment with Mowry
"It was a good win for us tonight!," said Head Coach Chris Mowry. "FSCJ is really a tough, physical team, and they played much harder than us in the first half. We wanted to match their toughness in the second half, and I thought we did! Our press maybe wore them down some, and we were able to get out in transition for some buckets in the last ten minutes. Yaw and Jay did a nice job scoring for us. Brad (Douglas) had another good game, and Aleksa hit two big three-pointers down the stretch. Eddie Foster III and Hasan were also both big off the bench tonight."
 
Up Next
Santa Fe (5-3, 2-2 CC) will return to their home floor on Saturday, Feb. 13 for a matchup with Daytona State College at 4:30 p.m. 
Video Box Score

Team Stats