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| PC: Amy Beckmann |
"I thought it was the best game we played all year," said head coach Tom Parks. "I know some people might think of it as 'well it's against the team that's last in your conference'. Hillsborough is a very good team, they beat really good teams this year and are a lot better Hillsborough team than their previous seasons the past four or five years, but their a good team and they beat us last game on their turf and to basically have a score of 79-52 and holding them to 38 less points, even though we didn't score as much, I will take that."
"It feels good, even though it's tough playing the same team three times," said Parks on the series win. "As coaches, you want to go a perfect 3-0 but I think sometimes a loss can keep you off balance a little bit and make sure you're continuing to get better and so I think that's one thing that really helped us actually was taking some losses and it forced me to become a better coach and I think it forced our guys to question what their priorities here and their commitment level to our team and I think some of our guys over the last three weeks have taken a lot more commitment to our team and individually to become a better student-athlete. Winning the series is nice, but I'm glad we lost the second game to them because I think it helped us win this one and it's gonna help us finish this season strong in the right way."
"It feels good to get the win," said sophomore Remy Robert II. "In conference we've been up and down, so to come in and handle it the right way and to handle it the right way after losing six out of the last seven games, it feels good to get the win and get back on track."
"It felt good to get a big win after being on a long losing streak," said sophomore Christnoff Scarborough. "We as a team continued to keep pushing and we knew we had to get this win."
Prior to the game, it was dubbed as sophomore night for five sophomores: Isiah Dasher, Robert II, Scarborough, D'Moi Hodge and Max Bell-Ramos who were all recognized from their accomplishments from last season as well as this season. In fact, all five sophomores were placed in the starting lineup.
"I think people look at 'sophomore night' in different ways," said Parks on sophomore night. "For me, this is a really special group because these sophomores came in with me and all of them were freshmen for my 'freshman' head coaching year, so it's kind of bittersweet because I always feel dedicated to this group because of what they been able to do, but at the same time I look at it as a whole, I think about where was State College of Florida as an institution, athletics program or men's basketball program before this guys and I got to tell you for sure that this group of sophomores made all three of those things better."
"On top of that, they did it for the community and put in so many hours into doing various community service projects and they never complained one time about it. They all have huge hearts and are unbelievable people no matter what our record is in terms of wins and losses."
Parks pulled away from the game and mentioned what the sophomores did on Valentine's Day where they handed out Valentine's Day cards to the homeless. This made Hodge go a step further to where he gave $10 to a homeless man and the homeless man's wife broke down emotionally for what Hodge did.
"Something to put into perspective is these guys don't have a lot themselves," said Parks. "So for somebody that says that someone deserves something more than themselves, what they done for the community and for this school just to representing the right way on and off the court since I been here. We had an unbelievable group the last two years and it's hard to say that we had unbelievable groups because these five sophomores have dedicated themselves for two years, so I'm just happy we were on them the right way with the win for our best game the entire year."
The game began with a 7-3 SCF lead thanks to baskets by Bell-Ramos, Hodge and Dasher. The Hawks would then take a 9-7 lead before the Manatees with 12 minutes left in the game. It was smooth sailing for the Manatees in the first half holding on to a 40-21 lead in the first half. From there, it continued to be smooth sailing for the Manatees with standing ovations to Dasher, Robert II, Scarborough, Hodge and Bell-Ramos as the Manatees claimed the series.
"It's special because last year, we didn't come out on top for sophomore night," said Robert II on the win on sophomore night. "It was special to come in and get a win. It's a special place to be at where we can have a lot of fun. We built a great team here and we're all gelling together really well and coming together closer every game despite our recent games, but it felt good to get the win and show our fans that we're still here."
"It's bittersweet, but it felt really great to get the win on sophomore night," said Scarborough on the win for sophomore night. "It was our last guaranteed home game and it feels good to win our last home game."
Offensively, Hodge led the Manatees as he finished with 18 points (7-for-17 FG, 1-for-4 3PT, 3-for-4 FT), eight rebounds, six assists, four steals two blocks.
"I thought D'Moi played a complete game," said Parks on Hodge. "He's been rebounding the ball very well right now and I think obviously he's been good."
Scarborough and freshman Marshall Kearing each had a double-double. Scarborough finished with a career-high 16 points (8-for-11 FG) and 12 rebounds, while Kearing finished with 13 points (6-for-11 FG, 1-for-3 FT) and tied season-high 12 rebounds. Scarborough added an assist, two steals and a block, while Kearing added four assists, a steal and five blocks. In fact, it was Scarborough's first career collegiate double-double at SCF. For Kearing, it was his seventh double-double of the season.
"With Chris' effort, it's only a matter of time before he starts filling up numbers in the box score," said Parks on Scarborough. "A lot times it's hard to fill up numbers when he doesn't play and a lot of that happened early on in the season and it's weird because it was the same thing that happened last year with him, he played early, didn't play and then became really important down the stretch and it's kind of what's shaping up this late in conference as well. He plays so hard and he's gonna get a lot of rebounds."
Dasher and Bell-Ramos each finished with nine points. Dasher (3-for-6 FG, 3-for-5 3PT) added one rebounds and one assist, while Bell-Ramos (3-for-7 FG, 1-for-3 3PT, 2-for-2 FT) added six rebounds and two assists.
"Max (Bell-Ramos) started off really well for us to start us off," said Parks on Bell-Ramos.
"Isiah (Dasher) played more to like his strengths right now which honestly his having a hard time putting on the floor because of his ankles so he hit three 3s, which was good to see, so that really helped us."
Robert II finished with eight points (3-for-10 FG, 2-for-7 3PT), one rebound, one assist and one steal.
"I didn't try to force anything," said Robert II. "I did take a few shots that weren't that good, but my teammates trusted me and I feel like I earned their trust a lot more in recent games and they just finding me more and I'm shooting a lot more with confidence in the gym. I've been driving to the basket, shooting the three well, playing defense and just trying to be consistent as much as possible."
"Remy (Robert II) has put together back-to-back the best two games of his career," said Parks on Robert II. "Unfortunately we didn't get the win against St. Pete, but the fact that he could string two games together like that is huge because he struggled to do that during his time here."
Redshirt freshman Calvin McCutcheon (three points, one rebound, two assists and a steal) and freshmen Jordan Clark (two rebounds, three assists and a steal), Michael Gavin (one point) and Sam Grayson (two points, five rebounds and a steal) also contributed in the game.
"I think our energy from the bench and it being sophomore night really helped us get the win," said Robert II on the turning point. "We sustained it when they (HCC) tried to make a run in the first half, but I felt like we just pushed it and never let it get it back to where they try to get it to and we played hard tonight. In fact, I think that this was one of our best games we played all year."
"As a team, we were playing really scrappy and we executed from it," said Scarborough. "I could already tell from the start of the game."
Freshman Edgar Zeigler led the Hawks with 12 points and two rebounds. Zeigler was the only Hawk to score in double digits. Sophomore Michael Cole finished behind Zeigler with nine points and four rebounds.
Notes:
Hodge's 18 points put him at 711 this season and 1,309 in his career. Hodge needs 33 points for the all-time career scoring record and 52 points for the single season points record. Both records are held by James Life (career: 1,341; season: 762).
With his nine points, Dasher now has 929 in his career and needs 71 to become the third player to reach 1,000 career points and the second active player to do so.
Other Suncoast Scores:
Polk State (20-7, 7-3 Suncoast) defeated St. Pete College (13-16, 3-8 Suncoast) 80-63. The Eagles will be back in action Wednesday night, February 19 at 7:30 pm against HCC. The Titans will be back in action Saturday afternoon, February 22 at 4 pm against HCC.
Suncoast Standings:
1. #2 FSW (27-1, 10-0 Suncoast)*#
2. Polk State (20-7, 7-3 Suncoast)
3. SCF (19-10, 5-6 Suncoast)
4. St. Pete College (13-16, 3-8 Suncoast)
5. Hillsborough (9-16, 1-9 Suncoast)
#Clinched Playoff Berth
*Suncoast Regular Season Champions
Up Next:
The Manatees will play one more regular season game as they travel to Ft. Myers to take on #2 FSW (27-1, 10-0 Suncoast) Wednesday night, February 19 at 7 pm. This will be the Manatees last regular season game of the season before the Suncoast Conference Tournament.
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