Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Defense was the key to victory for the Eckerd men's basketball team Saturday afternoon inside the McArthur Center as EC defeated the Tampa Spartans, 81-58, for its eighth straight win of the season.
Eckerd forced the Spartans (3-5, 0-3 SSC) into difficult shooting opportunities through a cohesive effort on the defensive end. Head coach
Tom Ryan has been stressing the significance of defensive field goal percentage, and that showed tonight. Many of UT's shots were contested by the Tritons, leading to a 32.8 field goal percentage on the night including 20 percent from 3-point range.
"If we can play some defense and make it tough for our opponent to score that it will give us a much better chance to win in the long run," he said.
The strong defensive outing was complemented by another dominant and balanced rebounding performance for Eckerd (8-1, 3-0 SSC). The team outrebounded Tampa, 40-28, including 29 defensive rebounds which limited the Spartans to just eight second-chance points.
"I liked how we rebounded in the second half. We were down three in rebounds at halftime and ended up out-rebounding them by 12," said Ryan.
On the offensive end,
Jerrick Stevenson had a trio of highlight reel plays that provided momentum for the Tritons while leading the squad with 19 points. The performance
did not come as a surprise for Coach Ryan."He's capable of doing that and lets himself off the hook sometimes, and he doesn't realize how good he is. He can have these types of games every night."The first of which came around the six minute mark in the first half as he stole the ball away from Marcel Robinson and dished it off to
Marco Behori before hustling down the court. Behori found Stevenson in stride, and the senior finished with a massive one-handed slam dunk.
The slam stopped a 7-0 Tampa run and seemed to fluster the Spartans as
Kevin Walsh quickly picked up a steal of his own seconds later that led to Behori getting sent to the free throw line as part of an 8-2 Eckerd run.
During the final minute in the first half, Tampa cut its deficit to six points. Walsh answered with a pair of free throws followed by Stevenson recording another steal around half court with three seconds remaining and hitting a deep 3-pointer as time expired.
The Spartans opened the second half with a three of their own, but
Trevon Young found a cutting Stevenson as Stevenson rose above Austin Rettig for another slam dunk. This time he was also fouled in the process and converted the 3-point play at the line.
"Early on he was getting hit going to the basket and the ball would end up out of bounds at times," said Ryan, "so I was proud of how he continued to fight and not settle."
It would soon become all Eckerd as the team bumped its lead to 20 points with 10:34 remaining. Eckerd never trailed and its biggest lead of the game was 81-57 with 21 seconds to go following a pair of
Admir Radoncic free throws.
Free throws were significant as the Tritons capitalized on their aggression by drawing fouls and shooting 25-30 from the line.
Pat Bacon led all scorers with 23 points, but the defensive pressure limited him to just 7-23 from the field and 2-8 from 3-point range.
Obi Kyei and Stevenson pulled down six rebounds each for the Tritons, the most for the game. Walsh and Kyei also reached double figure scoring at 11 and 10 respectively.
E.J. Moody and
Trevon Young were game leaders in assists with four each. More category leaders for Eckerd were
Drushaun McLaurn as he picked up three steals and
Kendall Roberts with two blocked shots.
Eckerd will return to action on Saturday, December 12, when the team travels to Winter Park to take on the undefeated Rollins Tars (9-0, 2-0 SSC) in a Sunshine State Conference contest. The game is scheduled to tip-off at 4:00 PM.
