WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—The No. 21 Southeastern University men's basketball team traveled to No. 6 Keiser and came away with a 69-68 victory. Freshman
Riley Minix led his team to the win with 28 points, 14 rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
Head Coach
Kevin Lubbers commented on Minix's performance, "Riley hit some big shots, got to the foul line and we were able to get him inside some. Riley's an extremely unselfish player but there's times when we need to go to him and he was able to be big for us coming down the stretch."
The Fire didn't get in front until late in the second half as they battled with the Seahawks all night, not letting their lead get to more than eight points. Trailing 31-23 in the first half, Southeastern responded with an 8-0 run to tie the game. Senior guard
Jeremy Oppenheimer kickstarted the run with a layup that was followed two free throws from Minix and four points from
Isaiah Moody.
The score would stay close from this point on as Keiser took a 42-39 lead into halftime.
After one half of play, Moody led the Fire in scoring with ten points, and he was helped by
Devon Ford Oppenheimer adding eight points apiece, while Minix scored seven first half points. The free-throw line was key for the Fire as they struggled shooting from the field at 46.4%, but went 12-13 from the charity stripe.
Southeastern and Keiser traded blows in the second half of play and the Fire finally broke through to take the lead on a jumper from Ford with 4:28 left on the game clock. The Seahawks responded to tie the game but Minix came through in the clutch for the second time in a week, going 4-4 from the free throw line to give the Fire the lead for good.
With the 69-68 win, Southeastern has now won three straight after back-to-back losses and is gaining momentum. Coach Lubbers spoke about how his team has gotten back on track, "It's always about execution. Basketball is a game of mistakes so you just need to make less mistakes than the other side, and concern yourself with your system and execution. I think our guys have done a nice job of doing that and have gotten ourselves back on track."
The Fire (20-7, 13-3 TSC) will look to keep their winning ways going when they take on Johnson & Wales in The Furnace on Saturday, February 15
th at 4:00 pm.
