LAKELAND, Fla.—
Riley Minix was tired of his team struggling this week.
Coming off of a loss Thursday, his Southeastern team was down 35-32 at halftime with just nine made field goals.
The junior took matters into his own hands in the second half, making as many shots as his entire team did in the first half and sparking the Fire to an 84-74 comeback win over Coastal Georgia Saturday night.
Coastal Georgia held the halftime advantage after shooting 37% from the field and 5-of-12 from 3-point range and committed just four turnovers. Stellar free throw shooting by the Fire helped keep them within reach heading to the second half.
Southeastern (19-4, 9-2 SUN) used an 8-3 run early in the second half, kicked off by an alley-oop from
Riley Matticks to Minix to tie the game at 40 with 17:09 to play. At the 14:54 mark of the half, Minix connected on a 3-pointer to start a 13-2 run with nine of those points coming off his hands in the span of 3:09 to give the Fire a 58-49 lead.
The four points that Minix didn't score during that run, he assisted on.
A
Jordan Gorman 3-pointer with 11:13 left gave SEU a double-digit lead for the first time at 61-51, and it grew to as much as 14 on
Reggie Mesidor's layup with 7:00 left.
The Mariners used some key outside shots and some momentum building dunks to try to get back into the game, getting the deficit to nine with 90 seconds left, but were unable to slow the Fire offense which finished the second half 57.6% from the field.
Minix had his 15
th double-double of the season, recording a dunk with 16 seconds left for his 33
rd point of the game to go along with 10 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals in 31 minutes. Freshman
Joshua Blazquez played a season-high 21 minutes and scored 11 points and dished out three assists.
Jordan Gorman also added 11 points and five rebounds.
The Fire return to the court on Thursday on the road at Warner.
