In the second round of the Glenn Wilkes Classic the Stetson men's basketball team showed tremendous improvement, yet couldn't hit the shots it needed down the stretch to pull out the win. Florida Atlantic was able to outscore Stetson 8-2 in the final 1:52 and take home a 68-62 victory.
The Hatters may not have won the game, but they showed why Head Coach Derek Waugh is confident his team is ready to turn the corner.
“We were physical with them tonight. We were aggressive and we did a good job getting to the line”, said Waugh. “We rebounded well and I like the turnover ratio I see (on the box score).”
To say that this was a physical contest would be an understatement. The officials saw fit to call 56 fouls in the game, 42 of which were called on the Owls. Stetson banged the boards hard for 33 rebounds (12 offensive) and hustled its way to nine steals compared to two for FAU. The turnover ratio referred to by Coach Waugh favored the Hatters who gave up the ball just 10 times, while the Owls registered 20 turnovers.
A close game, both teams swapped the lead early with the Owls taking a one point advantage (38-37) into halftime following a layup by Xavier Perkins with 41 seconds remaining.
Coming out of the locker room FAU was ready to go and ran off an 11-2 run to open up the second and led 49-39 with 14:14 remaining. After consecutive 3-pointers by junior Eric Diaz and sophomore Mark Lohuis, the score was 49-45. Diaz hit another jumper at 12:33 to bring the Hatters within a pair. After a basket by the Owls, Lohuis hit his second trey and sophomore Sheldon Oliver hit a free throw to tie the game at 51 with 10:51 remaining
With 2:09 on the clock junior Garfield Blair sank a free throw to put the Hatters up 60-59. It was the last lead, however, the Hatters would enjoy. In the final two minutes Stetson was 0-5 from the floor including two missed 3-pointers and two missed layups. It was the Hatters' shooting that cost them in the end.
Overall Stetson shot a disappointing 13-55 (23.6%) from the field and 4-25 (16.0%) from 3-point range. The bad news is that Stetson lost the game due to poor shooting. The good news is that the Hatters are a sound, hard working team and shooting always comes around.
“In the last two minutes if a few plays went the other way we win this game”, said Waugh. “Remember we are mostly juniors and sophomores. If we keep playing like that, as the season goes on those guys will start making the plays.”
Blair led Stetson with 13 points and chipped in 6 rebounds. Sophomore Sheldon Oliver led the team with seven rebounds and scored 11 points. With the loss the Hatters dropped to 1-2 on the season; the Owls improved to 1-2. The Glenn Wilkes Classic continues tomorrow night when Stetson takes on the University of Rhode Island in the feature game at 8:15 p.m.
