LAKELAND, Fla.—Southeastern overcame a 17-point second half deficit to come away with a 73-71 overtime win over St. Thomas to break a first place tie in The Sun Conference.
St. Thomas limited Southeastern to just 9-of-29 from the field (31%) in the first half, taking its biggest lead at that point with an 8-0 run over the final 4:47 of the half to hold a 34-21 lead at the intermission.
The Fire tied the game at 12 on a
Jalan Mull 3-pointer with 10:58 left in the first and at 14 on an
Aaron Jones contested layup but back-to-back 3-pointers by St. Thomas gave the guests control of the half.
The size advantage for the Bobcats was most notable on the glass when they held a 27-14 edge in rebounding over Southeastern in the first 20 minutes.
With 90 second gone in the second half, St. Thomas had opened up a 38-21 advantage getting two quick baskets to start the second half.
Southeastern connected on five of its first 10 3-point attempts in the second half to chip away at the deficit. A 6-0 run highlighted by a
Sean Shore 3-pointer at the 9:35 mark of the second half got the Fire within four at 47-43.
Reggie Mesidor muscled away a defensive rebound, then knocked down a 3-pointer with 8:53 left in the contest to get within one, but the Bobcats answered with one of their own.
Shore tied the game with a layup with the shot clock expiring with just over seven minutes to play.
Jalan Mull then connected on a pair of free throws at the 6:38 mark to give SEU its first lead since the first basket of the game.
After the teams exchanged ties and leads over the next four minutes, Shore knocked down an open 3-pointer with 2:38 left to give the Fire a 57-55 advantage after the team had missed four straight from bonus range.
A pair of St. Thomas free throws with 48 second left tied the game at 59. The Fire missed a layup with 19 seconds remaining and the Bobcats were unable to get a shot off after a deflected pass with two seconds left in regulation.
With the overtime session tied at 69 with 1:19 left, Minix muscled away an offensive rebound and put it off the glass and through to give the Fire the lead. A putback by
Sean Shore with the game tied at 71 with just 17 seconds remaining proved to be the difference after three attempts to win or tie by St. Thomas went unsuccessful.
Mesidor led the Fire in scoring with 19, connecting on two of his five 3-pointers in the extra period. Minix and
Jalan Mull added 15 each, and Shore finished with 13. Minix led all players with 13 rebounds.
The Fire will travel to Miami Gardens on Saturday to take on Florida Memorial.
