December 18, 2013
SF MEN’S BASKETBALL
Gainesville, FL – Santa Fe guard Shea Jones had a career night on Wednesday afternoon against Hillsborough CC, leading the Saints past the Hawks 67-56. Jones finished with a season high 17 points, six assists, and six steals. Jonathan Hood led SF with 19 points and Takija Knight had a double double for the second game in a row, scoring 10 points to go with 13 rebounds and three blocks.
Santa Fe (12-3) opened the game with a 16-1 run and led by as many as 16 in the early going. Hillsborough finally started to get some shots to go and cut the deficit to 21-16 with just under five minutes to go in the first half.
The Saints closed out the rest of the half on a strong note and Jones capped a 9-0 run over the final 4:46 to give SF a 30-16 half time lead. Santa Fe held the Hawks to just 22% shooting over the first 20 minutes, including 2-for-15 from the three point line
“We got off to a great start, hit a lull in the middle of the half but then picked it up over the final couple minutes,” said SF Coach Chris Mowry. “We did a nice job contesting shots and forced them into a lot of long threes.”
Hillsborough (6-9) came storming back in the second period, slashing the lead to just two at the 13 minute mark. Jonathan Hood responded with five straight to push it back to seven but the Hawks would not go away and again cut the margin to two at 44-42.
Morris Marshall took over from there, scoring eight of the Saints next 12 points to pace a 12-0 run and built the lead back to 14, one SF would not relinquish. Marshall capped off the win with two free throws to give him 10 points for the game.
“We didn’t have the same energy in the second half, and HCC did a great job coming at us,” said Mowry. “We couldn’t stop them at all the first nine minutes. Luckily we regained our composure and started scoring at a good rate. We had some good individual performances from Shea, Takija, Morris and Jon. Shea played more minutes than he is used to and responded well.”
The Saints will take a few weeks off for the holidays before returning to the court on January 8 at home against St. Petersburg College at 7:00 PM.
“This was a good way to end a good first half of the year. We will give the guys a little time off to be with their families and then get back after it in January with four or five practices before a very good St. Pete team comes to Gainesville.”
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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