January 5, 2011 Contact: Scott Jamison 352.395.5616 scott.jamison@sfcollege.edu
SF MEN’S BASKETBALL
CENTRAL FLORIDA SLIPS PAST SAINTS, 82-78
Gainesville, FL – Despite playing with only eight dressed out, the Santa Fe Saints (13-6, 0-1 MFC) gave the #3 team in the state everything they could handle on Wednesday night before succumbing to the College of Central Florida (15-4, 1-0 MFC) in the final seconds 82-78.
“I was proud of our effort tonight,” said SF coach Chris Mowry. “We continued to battle all game and gave ourselves an opportunity at the end.”
The Patriots led from the outset and had as much as a 17 point advantage in the first half. The Saints trimmed that lead down to 36-30 with two minutes to go thanks to four straight three pointers by Chad Renfro, but Kevin Foster and Mathaing Muo combined for the final five points, including a three at the buzzer to give CCF the 43-32 halftime lead.
“We didn’t get off to the start we would have liked,” said Mowry. “Our defense struggled and we didn’t make the shots we needed to.”
The Saints and Patriots went back and forth for most of the second half before SF broke through over the final two minutes.
Down by 10 with 2:25, Eddie D’Haiti took a pass from Jerome Clyburn and dunked it home with a foul. He made the subsequent free throw and on the next possession Clyburn hit a layup to cut the margin to 74-69.
Over the next minute, D’Haiti and Clyburn continued to handle the scoring for Santa Fe, combining to make four free throws, trimming the lead to just three with one minute left.
Central Florida’s Hunter Williams made a clutch runner in the lane to push the lead back to five, but Djekovic had the answer for the Saints, nailing a three pointer from the corner to make the score 78-76. The Patriots made all four of their free attempts over the final seconds to hold on for the win.
Chad Renfro led SF in scoring with 21, including 18 in the first half. Marko Djekovic had a nearly perfect night shooting the ball, finishing with 20 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field, 3-of-3 from the three point line and 5-of-6 from the free throw line and Jerome Clyburn had 14 points and four assists.
“Our guards did a very nice job tonight,” said Mowry. “They played a lot of minutes and did a bulk of the scoring for us.”
The Saints travel to Daytona State on Saturday to take on the Falcons at 4:00 pm. The game can be watched live on www.PSBlive.com.
“The MFC season is a long one and we still have a ways to go,” said Mowry. “We need to put this one behind us and prepare the next two days for Daytona and go down there and try and get a win.”
For complete schedules and more information on Saints Basketball, please visit www.sfcollege.edu/athletics. To see game photos and other updates, follow Santa Fe College Athletics on Facebook.
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