SEU Basketball Advances to TSC Final with OT Win
Donnie Smith
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—With turnovers mounting, and facing a 10-point deficit with 9:57 to play, it looked like the Southeastern men’s basketball season was going to come to an end.
The Fire rallied back to tie the game with 20 seconds left to force overtime, where they knocked off the #2 seed St. Thomas 80-76 to advance to The Sun Conference Championship game for the first time in program history.
“I told them if we lost this game, our season is over,” said coach R-Jay Barsh of his message to the team.
Message received.
Southeastern (18-11) used a 13-0 run spanning 4:34 to turn a 10-point second half deficit into a three point lead with 5:23 to play. Seniors Tim Mitchell and Andre’ Winston each scored four points during the run.
“When you play St. Thomas, they are so physical; they get you out of sync, so we needed to have guys play through mistakes and keep attacking the rim,” said Barsh.
On three different occasions in the final 3:46 of regulation, St. Thomas (17-12) took a four-point lead; the latest came with just 1:34 to go. Senior Dana Thomas converted a layup with 1:21 left to cut the Bobcat lead in half, then with 20 seconds left, Winston hit a fast break layup to knot the game at 66 and force the extra session.
The Fire continued their hot shooting into the bonus period, connecting on five of their nine shots, and finished the day 56% from the field.
Dana Thomas bagged a pair of free throws with 1:13 to go to put SEU up 77-74. A steal by Tana Pritchard before a 3-point attempt by Tim Sada resulted in a dunk by Thomas to put the game away with 12 seconds left.
Southeastern controlled the majority of the first half, building a lead as large as seven with 6:35 remaining, but the Bobcats closed the stanza on an 8-0 run, with four points occurring in the final six seconds to take a 33-31 lead at the break.
Winston led all scorers with 28 points, and added four rebounds, four assists and two steals. He was 10-of-16 from the field, and hit all seven of his free throws. Thomas added 17 points, six rebounds, two assists and two blocks. Mitchell had his 12th double-double of the season with 11 points, 11 rebounds, and six blocks. Freshman Xavier Burrow added 11 points and five rebounds off the bench.
“We don’t care who it is,” said Barsh of the team’s key performer. “We know at the end of the day, Winston is our guy taking it to the rim, but we don’t care who the other guys that step up are.”
The Fire will take on the winner of the Warner vs. Embry-Riddle game at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in Daytona Beach.