Gainesville , FL- The Saints lost a tightly constested match up against a tough South Georgia State Hawks team at home Tuesday night.  Both teams came out hot, hitting multiple three pointers.  In the first half, the Saints were led by redshirt freshman guard Kevin Pazmino, who hit a total of three 3 pointers and three free throws going into the break with 12 points.  Tynan Becker and Ashton Lovette also each hit a three point shot of their own contributing to the Saints 25 first half points.  The Hawks were led by sophomore guard/forward Kyric Davis with 9 first half points.  Sophomore guard Joseph Bell hit two field goals adding to a well balanced scoring effort by the Hawks in the first half.  Eight differrent players scored in the first half for the Hawks.

Defensively, the Hawks caused multiple turnovers to begin the second half, forcing the Saints to be out of offensive rhythm.  THe Hawks pressured the Saints full court for a large part of the game.  Althought the Saints outscored the Hawks during the second half, the turnover differential proved to be detrimental in a tightly contested game.  Hawks sophomore forward Yannis Woods stepped up to score 10 second half points and also made his presence felt on the glass.  He would eventually go on to score nearly half of the Hawks second half points.  The Saints fought and competed well, but were unable to pull away.  Pazmino hit an additional two 3 pointers adding to his total of 20 points on the day.  In the closing moments of the game with the score knotted at 52-52, redshirt freshman guard Armen Hoard hit a well contested two point jumper to give the Hawks the lead with only 14 seconds to play.  Coach Mowry then called a timeout to set up a final play, to either tie or win the game.  Kevin Pazmino took a 3 point shot to win the game, but it fell short of the basket with time expiring.  

This loss brings the Saints to a record of 5-2 on the year.  They will face another tough, but familiar opponent in Palm Beach State College at 2pm on Saturday on the road.  

Comments from Coach Mowry

"Tough loss tonight.  I thought South Georgia State really guarded well, making it difficult for us to score.  Their pressure caused us to turn the ball over maybe 22 times, which is too many.  Those are some things that did to come out on top.  On our end, we were solid defensively, but maybe gave up too many offensive rebounds.   A couple of times we didn't defend properly, in terms of the scouting report and they got some easy buckets.  We also missed too many free throws.  So, there are lots of things we can watch film on and learn from to be better.  I am proud of our guys.  They fought hard.  We were down by 11 points at one time, but our guys didn't give up and we fought back and took the lead.  Things didn't go our way down the stretch, but we must quickly put this behind us and get ready for Palm Beach State this Saturday".

Notables 

- Leading Scorers

• Kevin Pazmino (20 points)
• Makye Boles (12 points)
• Tynan Becker (9 points)
• Ashton Lovette (7 points)