By Jeff Odom
The Saint Leo University (SLU) men’s basketball team gave away its chance at sole possession of the regular season Sunshine State Conference (SSC) title against Eckerd College Feb. 23.
The 11th-ranked Lions (20-6, 12-4 SSC) struggled to contain Tritons (18-6, 10-5) forward Darrien Mack (26 points) and couldn’t overcome foul trouble, falling 69-68 in front of a packed crowd home stadium.
“I didn’t think we did a good job getting ourselves to the line,” said second-year SLU coach Lance Randall. “We’ve shot 100 or so more free throws than our opponents this season and we were shooting the ball well, but I thought there were some stretches there where we went away from getting it to the rim.”
Eckerd finished 12-of-15 from the free throw line, while the Lions were 1-of-5.
The squads combined to shoot 46 percent from the field in the first half, but the Tritons gained the upper-hand at the break thanks to a 10-2 run and the physical presence of the 6-foot-7, 200-pound Mack, who shot five for seven in the first 20 minutes.
“I thought they came out in the first half, and they were just more physical,” Randall said. “Give Eckerd a lot of the credit. I just thought they out-physicaled us. I just thought they got us on the glass, they got some stops and we couldn’t get the rebounds, and that was a problem.”
SLU came out firing in the second half.
Junior guard Jerrel Harris, who finished with a career-high 27 points, helped the Lions take back the lead with a layup in the opening seconds.
Harris and senior guard Marcus Ruh (18 points, seven rebounds) kept Eckerd from pulling away as the duo nailed four straight 3-pointers. However, the Tritons wouldn’t budge and sank five of their own.
“I was hoping for them to miss and for me to make everything,” said Harris, who came in averaging 14.1 points. “I just wanted to get that W, and I was on a roll and felt like I couldn’t miss it.”
Harris made three more 3-pointers in the final minute, including one from just past half court that cut the margin to one at the buzzer.
But it was too little, too late.
“We just really got to get tougher right now,” Harris said. “We’ve got to push each other, really. I don’t feel like we pushed each other enough today, and we just got to do it.”
Randall said his team missed an opportunity, but it will have to quickly put the loss behind it for the conference tournament where the Lions are the top seed.
“We’ve responded really well to losses that we’ve had this year and now, it’s going to be the one-and-done mentality,” Randall said. “It’s a painful thing. These guys missed out on a neat experience of cutting down the nets and doing all that stuff in front of your home crowd, but you’ve got to earn that, and we didn’t. Now, we’ll see if we can earn that in the conference tournament.”
SLU travels to the Silver Spurs Arena, 1875 Silver Spur Lane in Kissimmee, for the SSC tournament March 6 through March 9.
—Follow Jeff Odom on Twitter: @JOdomLaker
