"It was a really ugly basketball game today," said head coach Tom Parks. "Both teams came out way too relaxed, although Santa Fe was less relaxed than us. I feel like we just handed them a 12-point lead to start the game and then decided to show up and play basketball for the next 35 minutes or so."
"It was an up-and-down game today," said sophomore Remy Robert II on the game. "We started slow, but I think that we came back in the first half and really put our standpoint that we were here to play once we picked ourselves up. In the second half, once again we were up and down yet we made some big winning plays to win the game. It definitely felt good to get the final home win of 2019, especially when we're trying to protect the home court that we play at home and we don't like losing at home, so it felt really good to come out and put on a show for the crowd to get the win."
The first half started with the Saints taking a 7-0 run for the first two and a half minutes until sophomore Isiah Dasher got the Manatees on the board with a layup. One minute later, with the score 10-2 Santa Fe, freshman Jordan Clark would get the next points on the board with a layup of his own to make it 10-4 still in favor of Santa Fe.
With five minutes in to the first half, the Saints held an 11-point lead until Dasher hit a 3-point shot that cut it to eight, but as the Manatees kept adding to their boxscore the Saints would continue to extend their lead, yet the Manatees kept fighting with big rebounds from freshman Sam Grayson and sophomore Max Bell-Ramos. Eventually, the Manatees cut the Saints' lead to one point after a dunk by Bell-Ramos before the first half ended with the score 45-43 still in favor of Santa Fe.
At the start of the second half, the Manatees got off to a very rocky start after giving up five straight points, but after a quick timeout by Parks and a rebound and putback shot by Grayson, the Manatees started to fight while taking advantage of several Saints' turnovers and eventually at the 16 minute mark, Clark would hit a hook shot and tie the game at 50-50. A rebound by Hodge and another putback shot by Grayson gave the Manatees their first lead of the game until a dunk by sophomore Ryan Leonard tied the game at 52-52 before Grayson hit a layup of his own to regain the Manatees' lead and a layup by Hodge and dunk by Clark off a Saints turnover extended the lead to 58-52 SCF before the Saints called a timeout.
Around the 12 minute mark, the Saints cut the Manatees lead to two before eventually tying the at 60-60 until a 3-pointer by redshirt freshman Calvin McCutcheon gave the Manatees a 63-60 lead. Strong rebounding by Bell-Ramos and Hodge continued to help the Manatees until a Leonard 3-pointer helped regain the Saints lead to 64-63, but the Manatees then found an equalizer behind the arch in Robert as he a 3-pointer off a bank shot to give the Manatees back their lead and get ahead by two. From there, back-to-back dunks by Hodge extended the Manatees lead to six before a 3-pointer by Dasher extended it to nine points.
With less than two minutes left and the Manatees ahead 77-76, the Manatees took a gamble with another shot Robert as the Baton Rouge native hit a second 3-pointer to give the Manatees an 80-76 lead until a Leonard layup made it 80-78 still in favor of SCF before a layup by freshman Yaw Obeng-Mensah tied the game up at 80 a piece before Parks called a timeout.
"Getting those 3-point shots shows my teammates trusting me and finding me a position to be successful which I got into," said Robert on his 3-pointers.
With 40 seconds left, Hodge attempted to give the Manatees a lead with a 3-pointer but was fouled behind the line and made two of three free throw attempts. The Saints would try to tie the lead after two shots by freshman Josiah Tynes before Obeng-Mensah was blocked by Bell-Ramos. Hodge would secure the key rebound before drawing the intentional foul with 2.9 seconds left and scoring two successful free throws before securing the final win. The win for the Manatees turned out to be the final home game of 2019 before the new year.
Four Manatees scored in double figures, but it was once again Hodge that led the Manatees offensively. The sophomore and upcoming transfer to Cleveland State led the team with 25 points (9-for-19 FG, 3-for-8 3PT, 4-for-5 FT), seven rebounds, three assists and five steals. Hodge was named NJCAA National Player of the Week last week.
"D'Moi was a little frustrated today," said Parks on Hodge. "He's finding that it is becoming more and more difficult for him to score as teams are now cluing in on him. I told him after the game 'If you score 44 points on somebody for the first time, what do you expect for the next time?' and so I think we knew that they (Santa Fe) were going to clue in on him and I don't think we were prepared as much because we kind of thought that things worked themselves out, which they did, but they probably don't work themselves out if you're playing the top three or four team in Florida. Despite getting flustered, D'Moi made a few big plays late in the game, which he typically does."
Dasher followed Hodge with 14 points (6-for-20 FG, 2-for-5 3PT), four rebounds, one assist and two steals before fouling out. Clark had 11 points (4-for-8 FG, 1-for-1 FT), three rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Grayson rounded out the lineup with a season-high 10 points (3-for-5 FG, 4-for-4 FT) and five rebounds.
"Although I'm still on the road to recovery, I'm getting fitter every day," said Grayson on his performance. "I'm learning and getting better every day. It kind of showed on the court today because I'm starting to get back to where I was. I played a good game, but there's still stuff I need to learn so I can improve a lot more."
"Sam nowhere near where he's going to be," said Parks on Grayson. "Sam and I had a heart-to-heart talk about a week ago on the things he needs to do to take the next step on our team. Sam is great and super coachable based on his energy levels, but while he's a forward where he gets trapped into that 'I'm a big slow guy and this is how I move' kind of feel. I did tell Sam that he needs to get a little more pep in his step and when we start practice, you need to be ready to go and not take another 20 minutes to warm up so you can try to get as many reps in. He's got in a lot better shape in the last week and that's a big part of it. Sam's a good athlete, but he hasn't been in shape due to past health issues the past six months when he was back in Australia."
"We went to this game thinking it's just another game and we beat them last time in overtime," said Grayson on the game. "I know we could've been a lot more better than last time, so there's things we had to improve on from last time to this game. To be honest, I don't think we executed that well, but in the end we got the win and that's all we can hope for but we just got to keep learning as a team and doing stuff we need to do. Every time we play at home, we don't want to lose and that's just our number one rule that we don't lose at home and to win on a close game at the end felt really good, even though it should have been a bigger score. We still got the win at home and that's all that matters."
Robert II finished with six points and four assists in the game.
"If you're a guard on our team and not starting, then you got to do some really really good things to be on the floor. When you have player A (Hodge) averaging 27 (points) a game, player B (Dasher) adding 17 points a game and player C (Clark) averaging 15 a game and they're all guards, then you better bring something to the table and Remy (Robert) brings to the table is that he is a very good defender," said Parks on Robert. "Most people think he's a shooter and he is a good shooter, but he's a much better defender than he is a shooter. He just really solid and takes a lot of pride in his shot. When he steps on the floor, he's on a mission defensively and will allow his man to get anything easy."
"It feels good to get the final win," said Parks on the win. "But it's also a little disappointing because we had two losses at home in 2019 with one of them to FSW, which I did not like at all, but it is what it is and it was good to finish on a good note."
"This is somewhere where we can embrace and take a lot of pride in our facilities and being at home, we can take more pride in it and I just think today is a game and I tell our guys regardless of the score it is, win or loss, I'm going to coach you based on our performance, not our outcome and so after the game it was like 'hey good job, you guys got the win against a Florida JUCO'. To me, that's a team you got to beat 98 times out of 100 and I just felt we didn't approach the game that way and I thought we'd assumed things were going to be handed to us and roll the ball out. I didn't like our mindset for the game, but the great part about it was we won and we're going to learn from a win lots of places that will be brushed under the rug and they won't learn from it but will celebrate it. We still got to figure out how to handle success and how to get better in a way. We're going to dissect some film during this long week of practice so we can clean some stuff so we can get better."
Bell-Ramos and freshman Marshall Kearing finished with seven points each. Bell-Ramos (3-for-6 FG, 1-for-2 FT) added two rebounds, an assist and a block, while Kearing (3-for-3 FG, 1-for-1 FT) added three rebounds, an assist and a steal.
McCutcheon finished with four points, one rebound, one assist and three steals, while freshman Michael Gavin added three rebounds and two assists.
Four Saints ended up in double figures in scoring. Leonard led with 23 points and seven assists, while Obeng-Mensah had a double-double of 16 points and 13 rebounds and Tynes contributed 13 points and four assists. Freshman Jovan Jovanovic rounded out the lineup finishing with 12 points and five rebounds off the bench.
Personal Note: I had to miss the entire first half and a couple of minutes of the second half because of work, which is understandable. And of course, I did say I was going to be late for the game and as soon as I arrived, the Manatees had some life in them.
Other Suncoast Scores:
#7 Florida Southwestern (11-1) defeated Combine Academy by a score of 112-74 at home Friday night. The Buccaneers will travel to Miami to take on Miami Dade Tuesday night, December 10 at 7:30 pm.
Polk State (10-2) defeated Santa Fe College 92-81 Wednesday night before competing in the Chipola College Classic in Mariana, Florida with two upset wins over #6 Gulf Coast State (73-67) and #15 Chipola (73-69). The Eagles will join SCF and compete in the two-day Florida College's Men's Basketball Shootout, hosted by CCF. They will face Florida State College at Jacksonville on day one before facing Pensacola College on day two.
St. Pete College (6-6) competed in Georgia where they defeated Southern Crescent Technical College 63-35 Friday night, December 7 before defeating Gordon State by a score of 50-49 Saturday afternoon, December 8. The Titans will compete in the two-day Florida College's Men's Basketball Shootout. They will face #15 Chipola at 6 pm Friday night, December 14 before facing ASA Miami at 1 pm Saturday afternoon, December 15.
Hillsborough (4-6) fell to Indian River State on the road losing by a score of 101-77. The Hawks will be back in action as they face ASA Miami Sunday afternoon, December 8 at 1 pm before joining the rest of the Suncoast Conference at the JUCO Shootout
Notes:
With his 25 points, Hodge now has 954 career points and is now 46 away from reaching 1,000 career points.
Dasher's 14 points put him at 748 and is now 252 shy of also reaching 1,000 career points.
SCF Fun Fact (2012-present):
The Manatees are 6-3 when winning the final home game before the new year.
Up Next:
The Manatees will return to Ocala on neutral grounds as they compete in the two-day weekend Florida College's Men's Basketball Shootout, hosted by CCF December 14-15. The Manatees will face ASA Miami (3-8) on Friday afternoon at 2 pm and Florida State College at Jacksonville (4-6) Saturday afternoon at 4 pm.
1 comment:
Thank you pat! Thank you for all you do!
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