LAKELAND, Fla.—Southeastern will look to build on the momentum of its win over No. 1 Saint Francis on Saturday as it hosts a pair of four-team classics this week at The Furnace.
The Fire will host Brewton-Parker on Monday followed by No. 13 Grace on Tuesday. Friday, Olivet Nazarene which is receiving votes in the coaches' poll will be the opponent and a game against coach
Kevin Lubbers' alma mater on Saturday, Trinity Christian rounds out the week.
Junior forward
Riley Minix scored the last seven points of the game for SEU in its 74-72 win over Saint Francis which included a pair of free throws with four seconds left to put the Fire in the lead. He finished with 29 points and is within 100 points of becoming the first Southeastern player in six years to reach 1,000 points during his time with the Fire.
Jordan Gorman added 11 points and a pair of key defensive plays which included a block on a game-winning shot attempt by the Cougars at the buzzer.
Today will be the second meeting of the year against Brewton-Parker which the Fire defeated 92-63 on November 6
th in SEU's third game of the year. Minix needed just 24 minutes to rack up 18 points and 14 rebounds in the win and was joined in double-figures by
Mykhailo Yagodin (16),
Sam Brown (14),
Devon Ford (11), and
Reggie Mesidor (10). Emmanuel Green paced BPC with 11 points in 10 minutes off the bench.
Like Southeastern, Grace defeated No. 1 Saint Francis and also has a win against No. 11 Marian. The 12-0 Lancers held on for a 74-72 win at St. Xavier on Wednesday after leading by 17 at halftime. Grace was without leading scorer Frankie Davidson's 24.9 points per game and 6.6 rebounds per game in the contest, but Jake Wadding stepped up with a 20-point game in his absence. Elijah Malone is averaging 15.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game.
As a team, the Lancers lead the NAIA in field goal percentage at 55.5% and are fourth in 3-point percentage at 40.8%.
Olivet Nazarene has won three-in-a-row after a loss at IU Northwest on November 23
rd. Saturday, the Tigers cruised to an 89-65 win at Governors State to improve to 10-2 on the season. Landon Pflederer led the way with 20 points and Cade Chitty chipped in 12 points and 11 rebounds for ONU, which shot 57% from the field in the game. The Tigers are fourth in the NAIA in field goal percentage at 52.7%. Alex Gross lead the team in scoring at 19.8 points per game and 13 rebounds per game. Before coming to Lakeland, the Tigers will host Calumet College tomorrow.
Trinity Christian is 6-5 on the season with a win in its most recent game at Grace Christian on Saturday, 76-70 and will take on IU South Bend Wednesday before coming south. Lubbers started his coaching career at Trinity Christian after playing for the Trolls, leading the team to a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference title in 2011.
Day passes for each game are available at
SEUFire.com/tickets.
