MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.—The Southeastern men's basketball team didn't let a height disparity or a lack of depth hurt them in a Sun Conference matchup at Florida Memorial.
Southeastern (12-5) outscored the Lions in the paint 54-22, and outrebounded them by 16 in an 80-58 victory on the road.
The Lions (4-10) tried to seize momentum early with a dunk and a 3-pointer to go up 7-4 with 2:06 gone in the game. However, a drought of over five and a half minutes saw the Fire take a 25-9 lead with 10:35 to go on a fast break layup by
Riley Minix.
For the second straight game, Minix was SEU's leading scorer at 24 points, and registered the second double-double of the season with 15 rebounds.
SEU led by as many as 23 in the first half, getting a layup by
Jeremy Oppenheimer with 2:20 to go to go up 42-19. Oppenheimer finished with 15 points, eight rebounds, and four assists.
The Fire finished the half leading 46-27, thanks to shooting 56.9% from the field.
In the second half, the Lions never got closer than 14, doing so with 10:18 left and was answered by baskets by
Karl Jeanty and
Reggie Mesidor to push the advantage back to 18 (64-46) with 8:27 left.
Jeanty added 16 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and a steal in his 33 minutes. Mesidor had 14 points and three rebounds.
Despite turning the ball over just nine times to SEU's 18, FMU shot just 30% from the field and 25% from 3-point range.
FMU's Mubashar Ali, the leading rebounder in NAIA Division II at 13.6 per game was held to four total rebounds.
The Fire return to action on January 9
th at Johnson & Wales.
