LAKELAND, Fla. – In front of a strong home crowd of 724, the Southeastern University men's basketball team fell to the Keiser University Seahawks 71-60 on Senior Night.
The first half was tightly contested between the two squads, with seven total ties and lead changes.
Junior guard
CJ Reese exited the contest at the 7:46 mark with a lower body injury. Reese, who was averaging a team best 22.8 points per game heading into the contest, did not return to the game.
The Seahawks held a 29-22 advantage with 5:33 to go, their largest lead of the half. However a three pointer and a pair of free throws from senior guard Deshaun Wilcox helped cut the Keiser lead down to four.
Wilcox had a career night versus Keiser. The Raleigh, N.C. native scored a career-high 16 points, tied for the lead among all scorers, to go along with six rebounds.
"If you look back on the last five years, Deshaun Wilcox is leaving this program better than he found it…He played in some big games and always found a way to be a leader," shared Head Coach
R-Jay Barsh.
The Seahawks closed the half on a 7-2 scoring run to take a 41-34 lead over the Fire into the half.
A pair of free throws from junior forward
Josue Celestin cut the deficit to five with 16:45 to go. Celestin hauled in a team high 11 boards on the night, his seventh double digit rebound game of the season.
"He developed some things on the court (Celestin) but I'm proud of him because he is going to graduate and how hard he has worked to get to that point," commented Coach Barsh.
Southeastern was unable to cut the Keiser to any less than five in the second half. SEU endured a tough half of shooting, going 31.3% from the field (10-32), including 1-6 from behind the arc. A drive to the hole by Stanley Whitaker gave Keiser its largest lead of the game at 70-53 with 2:21 to go.
Freshman guard
Jeremy Oppenheimer notched his 21
st double digit scoring game of the season with 12 points to go along with seven rebounds. Senior guard
Jalen McCallum scored nine.
"We were in some games this season where if it wasn't for Jalen we wouldn't have had an opportunity to win, and he also brought a fire and intensity to our practices with our young guys," remarked Coach Barsh.
This game was the last of the season for Southeastern. The Fire battled through a high amount of adversity this year and saw many of their young faces take strides.
Oppenheimer led the team in minutes as a freshman with 973 and averaged 13.9 points per game, the most by any SEU freshman since the Fire joined the NAIA in 2009.
The Fire will look to work hard in the offseason and prepare for a successful run in the 2017-18 campaign.
