LAKELAND, Fla. – Southeastern University grinded their way to a lead that they maintained into the second half, but saw it slip away, as the University of Fort Lauderdale rallied for a 74-73 win at The Furnace tonight.
After leading by eight points at half, SEU pushed the advantage to 13 points twice in the opening 5:56 of half number two. But the Fire were careless with the ball and the visiting Eagles went on an 18-2 run and surged ahead, 61-58, over the next five minutes. The Fort Lauderdale lead grew to as many as seven points, 70-63, but Derek Murphy hit back-to-back buckets and cut the deficit down to 70-68 at 3:14. The score was 74-71 when SEU's Kyonte Thomas hit a layup with four second left to make the score 74-73. The Fire forced a turnover on the ensuing inbound pass and after a timeout had a chance to win the game with 2.7 second still on the clock, but turned the ball over as time expired.
The Fire shot 50% from the field (31-of-62) on the night and outrebounded the Eagles, 46-29. However, SEU committed 24 turnovers, leading to 30 Eagles' points.
Ahmad Johnson started strong with nine of his 23 points in the opening seven minutes of the contest and hit 10-of-16 field goals with a pair of treys. He also had five rebounds and an assist. Mikkelson logged a double-double of 19 points on 8-of-11 attempts with one triple and 10 rebounds. Murphy totaled nine points, eight boards, four assists and a steal, while Amir Britkat added an all-around eight points, five rebounds, and three steals. Joshua Blazquez rounded out the starters with five points, five assists and four rebounds.
Benez Woodard led Fort Lauderdale with 18 points.
With the loss, the Fire drop to 3-7 on the season. They head into finals next week and will be off until they host The University of Texas at Dallas on December 17. Tip off is at 2 p.m.
