MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The Fire showed great resilience and battled back in the second half, however, the Southeastern University men's basketball team came up just short in an 81-78 loss to the Florida Memorial University Lions.
After jumping out to an 11-7 lead in the early minutes of play, the Fire found themselves on the wrong side of a 29-4 scoring run by the Lions. The run spanned over a stretch of 8:07 in which FMU scored on 70% of their possessions (14-20). Florida Memorial led by as many as 21 in the first half.
A three point shot from freshman guard
Jeremy Oppenheimer at the buzzer trimmed the Lions' lead down to 45-29 at halftime.
SEU shot 37.9% from the field (11-29), 50% from behind the arc (3-6), and 44.4% from the free throw line (4-9) during the first half.
The Fire came out determined and motivated in the second half. A driving force for the inspired play was Oppenheimer, who opened up the first 3:06 to play in the second half with 11 points, including three straight converted three point attempts. The Zephyrhills native scored 17 of his 26 points in the second half.
The Fire strung together a 12-3 run midway through the second half which was capped off by a layup from junior guard C.J. Reese that gave SEU a 56-54 lead with 10:15 remaining. It was the first lead of the game for Southeastern since the 13:49 mark of the first half.
The final minutes were full of momentum swings, with six different lead changes in the last 6:29 to play. After going down by 8 with 1:35 to play, Reese rattled off five straight points to cut the deficit to 81-78.
A pair of missed FMU free throws gave SEU an opportunity to send things into overtime. However, a three point attempt at the buzzer from Reese just missed the mark.
Reese finished the contest leading all scorers with 29 points. In 13 games played for Southeastern this season, he has now scored 20 or more points eight times.
SEU made drastic offensive improvements in the second half, shooting 60.7% from the field (17-28), 62.5% from three point range (5-8), and a perfect 100% from the charity stripe (10-10).
The Fire will look to snap a four game winless streak as they travel to Thomasville, Ga. to take on the Thomas University Night Hawks next Thursday night. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.
