HIALEAH, Fla.—A solid shooting effort and a dominant performance in the paint helped balance out some turnover issues in a win at Florida National.
Makkai Vassell recorded his second double-double of the season and
Reggie Mesidor added 22 points to a 74-63 win at Florida National on Wednesday to close out the 2023 portion of the schedule with an 8-5 record and four-straight wins.
In just over a minute of play the Fire had a 6-0 lead and held the Conquistadors (3-10) off the scoreboard until a basket at the 17:38 mark after SEU had scored the first nine points of the game.
Florida National got within a possession late in the first half getting a pair of 3-pointers from Gary Adams within 45 seconds of each other to make it 33-30 with 2:26 left until halftime. Mesidor answered on the next possession with a 3-pointer of his own to stretch the lead back to six.
Adams led all scorers with 24 points, going 4-of-8 from 3-point range.
The Conquistadors got it back to three on the next possession, but a
Sean Shore layup helped the Fire take a 38-33 lead to the locker room.
With 16:20 remaining, an FNU layup cut the Fire lead to 44-42 and got the ball off a takeaway but were unable to convert the layup. A 7-0 run by SEU, keyed by four points by Shore and a 3-pointer by Mesidor to go up 51-42 with 14:08 left.
Shore finished the game with 10 points.
At the 12:26 mark of the half, FNU got within one at 51-50 on a 3-pointer by Gabriel Fajardo but the Fire were able to hold off the charge and push the lead back to four with a layup and a split pair of free throws. A 3-pointer by Marcos Molina with 8:34 remaining put the pressure back on the Fire in a one-point game, but a 9-0 run spanning 3:06 gave the Fire the needed cushion to close out the game.
Freshman
Ja'Quay Randolph had four of his six points on the day during that run and Vassell added three. Randolph also finished the day with seven rebounds.
Southeastern held a 45-36 advantage in rebounding and outscored FNU 42-26 in the paint. The Conquistadors scored 14 of their points off of 17 offensive rebounds and 21 off of 21 SEU turnovers.
The Fire will return to the floor in 2024 when they travel to Ave Maria to open up Sun Conference play on January 6
th.
