Box Score
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Eckerd College men's basketball program remained unbeaten in the young season with another efficient shooting performance as it outgunned the University of Puerto Rico-Bayamon to begin the Thanksgiving Classic on Friday, 81-71.
Lance Kearse and
Wayne Sears Jr. each scored 24 points and the Tritons (3-0, 0-0 SSC) shot over 53 percent from the field.
Alex Bodney made all six of his free throw tries and a pair of timely trifectas en route to a dozen points while
Darrien Mack scored nine and pulled down a team-best seven rebounds.
The Tritons stood tall defensively against the Vaqueras (0-4 overall), who jumped out to an early lead in the opening minutes, riding the hot hand of Nelson Perez. UPR-Bayamon also made a furious second-half rally, whittling a 17-point deficit to three, but never taking the lead against Eckerd.
In less than five minutes, Perez scored his team's first 11 points after beginning the game with back-to-back shots that went down from beyond the arc and momentarily stunned the crowd.
UPR-Bayamon led by five before the Tritons began to take control.
Back-to-back treys from Kearse at the top of the key on consecutive possessions put Eckerd in the lead for the first time since the opening field goal. He finished 3-of-3 from downtown in the game and stands at 7-of-8 from long range on the season.
As Perez began to cool down, the Tritons kept heating up as freshman
Malcolm Brunner Jr. capped a 10-2 run with a tip-in to break a 25-25 tie. A pair of Bodney free throws put Eckerd up by 10 and a Sears layup gave the Tritons a 45-33 cushion at halftime.
Bodney's first three widened the EC lead to 16 early in the second half as the Tritons threatened to break the game open.
But the Vaqueras pulled off a frantic 14-0 run that was indicative of a near four-minute scoring drought by Eckerd. Perez drew contact on a layup and made a free throw that had UPR-Bayamon in striking distance at the 12:13 mark, down by just three.
Bodney snapped the brief cold spell with his second three and the Tritons were back in business.
Sears Jr. slashed his way to five consecutive points to push the lead back to 17 and Eckerd was on cruise control through the last six minutes of play.
Kearse finished 9-of-13 from the field to boost his season field-goal percentage to a .585 clip.
Perez did most of his damage early as he finished with 17 while teammate Hector Garcia was a perfect 6-for-6 from the field, including a two-handed lob dunk out of a timeout.
The Tritons will face Shaw (N.C.) University tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. after the Bears routed the University of Tampa by 20 earlier this afternoon. Shaw denied UT Head Coach Richard Schmidt his 600th career win.
