Ryan Reaches Milestone as Tritons Win on Senior Night

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Eckerd men's basketball team celebrated senior night with a win that turned out to be rather historic for head coach Tom Ryan.

The Tritons closed the home portion of the regular season schedule by racing out to a huge first-half lead over Saint Leo and, although the second half wasn't quite as efficient, cruised to an 84-69 win over the Lions for what was Ryan's 422nd career win - a victory that surpassed the legendary Jim Harley for the most wins in the history of Eckerd men's basketball.

A monster first half for senior Trevon Young (21 points, 9-of-10 shooting) helped set the tone as Eckerd raced out to a 54-31 lead at halftime.

The Tritons cooled considerably in the second half, but it played no factor as the deficit for Saint Leo was too large to overcome.  The Lions sneaked back within 15 points with 3:30 to play before EC put the proverbial nail in the coffin with back-to-back 3-pointers on its next two possessions.

HOW IT ENDED
Final: Eckerd 84, Saint Leo 69
Records: Eckerd 20-6 (13-6 SSC); Saint Leo 12-18 (8-11 SSC)
All-Time Series: Eckerd leads, 62-35

KEY MOMENTS

• Young set the tone from the opening tip, draining a 3-pointer on Eckerd's first possession before intercepting a pass near midcourt and taking it himself for a layup.  Those two baskets got things going on a 21-2 Triton run over the game's first seven minutes.
• Eckerd continued to make things difficult for Saint Leo in the first half, leading by as many as 26 points on a Travis Bianco 3-pointer with 14 seconds left.
• Saint Leo slowly shook off its cold shooting in the second half, but Eckerd was able to match the Lions for most of the final 20 minutes.  Back-to-back acrobatic layups by Bianco and Blake Morrow pushed the Triton lead back to 26 with 9:41 to play.
• Still showing life, the Lions went on an 11-2 run pulling within 15 points at the 3:39 mark.  Morrow and Keshawn Ingram responded with a pair of 3-pointers, extending the lead back to 21 and effectively ending the night for Saint Leo.

NOTES AND NUMBERS

• Saint Leo made just one of its first 11 shots and went over eight minutes without a field goal in the first half.  Meanwhile, the Tritons shot nearly 62 percent in the first half.
• Young scored 21 of his game-high 23 points in the first half while going 9-of-10 from the floor.
• Ryan's 422nd win came on the same night of his team's 20th of the season.  Under Ryan's guidance, the Tritons have won 20 or more games 13 times including three years in a row.  He recorded his 400th career win last season against Saint Leo on the road.
• The team's seniors - Young, Ingram and Paulius Zabilevicius - were honored before the game.
• Eckerd remained alone in second place in the Sunshine State Conference standings.  A win by Eckerd or a loss by Florida Southern on Saturday would give EC the No. 2 seed in next week's conference tournament.

UP NEXT
Eckerd wraps up the regular season on Saturday with a visit to Palm Beach Atlantic for a 4:00 PM tipoff.