LAKELAND, Fla.—Florida Memorial turned 14 second half fouls against Southeastern into 19 free throw makes and helped the Lions knock off the Fire 82-73 Saturday night.
The Lions went 19-of-21 from the line in the second half and finished the game 22-of-27 at the stripe.
With 12:14 left in the game,
Riley Minix converted a layup to put Southeastern up 52-44, which was the biggest lead SEU held. From that point on, the Fire committed six turnovers and missed nine layups.
Minix finished with a team-high 19 points, and had 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the year.
FMU went on a 15-3 run to turn a five-point deficit into a seven-point lead with 7:05 left in the game. The Lions got a huge momentum shift at the 5:49 mark when the Fire were called for a foul in the bonus, and were hit with two technical fouls down by four. Jordan Collins made all four of the technical shots and Cheikh Kebe made the two bonus free throws to take the Lions to a double-digit lead with the clock stopped.
Southeastern got as close as five (75-70) with 2:15 to go when
Karl Jeanty rattled the rim with a dunk to try to get the Fire going. However, they were unable to get the baskets needed after sending FMU to the free throw line. The Lions did their part by going 7-of-8 at the line in the last two minutes of the game.
In the first half, the Fire used a 12-0 run to go from their biggest deficit at the time (24-26) to a four-point advantage with 5:12 remaining and ended up tied at 34 at halftime.
Dylan Patrick was responsible for five of those points and finished the game with seven.
Jeremy Oppenheimer was also in double-figures for the Fire with 14 points, six rebounds, and five assists.
The Fire will be back in action on Thursday at home against Warner at 7:30 p.m.
