MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.—Despite a game that was tied 11 times and featured eight lead changes, the Fire came up short in an 83-72 game at St. Thomas Thursday night.
The Fire (20-6, 10-4 SUN) connected on 12 3-pointers, but had a tough time containing the Bobcats' interior game being outscored 40-24 in the paint and were outrebounded 47-38.
With 11:18 left in the first, the Fire held a 19-12 lead on a 3-pointer by
Aaron Jones. St. Thomas scored the next 12 points of the game and with 9:33 left in the first, led 24-19. The Bobcats never fell behind the rest of the half and held a 42-40 advantage at halftime.
In the second half, the Fire led 53-52 with 13:29 left but an 8-2 run by the Bobcats put them back on top. After going down eight with 5:21 left, the Fire battled back to cut the deficit to three with 2:07 left on a jumper in the lane by
Riley Minix to make it 75-72 St. Thomas.
Following a Bobcat miss, the Fire turned it over and yielded a layup to start an 8-0 run to finish the game.
Jordan Gorman led the way for the Fire with 21 points, going 6-of-12 from 3-point range. Minix added 19 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.
Mykhailo Yagodin added 11 points.
The Fire return to the floor on Saturday at 7 p.m. against Florida Memorial.
