DeLand, Fla. ? Stetson took advantage of a 12-0 run in the final 1:18 and an 18-0 overall run to finish the game with a 76-71 win over Florida Gulf Coast (2-5, 0-1). Cocoa's A.J. Smith scored a game-high 20 points and equaled his season-high of six assists to lead the way for the Hatters who are now 3-3 overall and 1-0 in Atlantic Sun Conference play.
With 2:40 remaining in the game Reed Baker (Naples, Fla.) hit a 3-pointer to put the Eagles up by 13 points and seemingly close the door on an Eagles win. As it turned out, however, the Edmunds Center Magic was just beginning to take shape.
It began with a layup, a foul and a free throw by sophomore guard Mark Lohuis (Vero Beach, Fla.). Then while attempting to cross the mid court down the left side FGCU's Ben Vega (Waukegan, Ill.) stepped out of bounds under heavy pressure. Nine seconds later Garfield Blair (Orlando, Fla.) picked up a feed from Lohuis and made a layup to get the Hatters to within eight. He followed that with a free throw at 1:18 and the lead was cut to 71-64.
With heavy pressure on the ball Stetson caused another turnover by Vega that turned into an Eric Diaz (Miami, Fla.) 3-pointer and the lead was four. On the ensuing inbound play Blair came up with a steal, Kris Thomas (Livonia, Ga.) picked up the loose ball and drained another trey to make the score 71-70 Gulf Coast with 54 seconds on the clock.
The Edmunds Center crowd bounced off the walls with excitement. The Hatters were not to be denied and proceeded to run off six more points in the final 34 seconds en route to the five point win.
“We played well in the last four minutes of the first half and the last four minutes of the second half,” said Hatters head coach Derek Waugh. “The guys found a way to make the shots when we needed them most to pull out a win.”
Stetson was cold from the floor to open the game. Coming out of the second media timeout the Hatters were 4-of-17 from the field and trailed the Eagles 18-9 on the scoreboard.
At 9:34 Blair went strong to the offensive glass for a pair plus one and made the score 21-12 Eagles. After just over four minutes of even play a 3-pointer by Smith at 4:58 made the score 30-22 and ignited a 12-3 run by the Hatters.
At 3:57 Diaz stepped in and took a charge from Derrick O'Neil and then hustled down at the other end where he took a pass down low, faked Kyle Marks up in the air and drew a hard, intentional foul. Although he missed his free throws, Lohuis and Tim Lang (Victoria, Australia) followed with a pair of treys and the Hatters were within five at 32-28. A Smith 3-pointer with 26 seconds remaining finished the scoring and sent the Hatters into the locker room down by just one at 34-33.
Lang led all scorers at the half with 10 point and along with Blair had six rebounds.
The second half started off like the first with Stetson missing its first seven shots from the field. The slump forced the home team to play catch up for the remainder of the game.
A steal, an end-to-end sprint and a layup by Smith at 10:20 followed by another Eagle turnover and a Thomas twisting leaner and Stetson was down 53-48 at 10:03.
For the game Lang and Thomas hit in double figures with 12 and 10 points respectively, while Blair finished with 11 rebounds to go along with eight points. The Hatters are now 18-2 in their last 20 games in the Edmunds Center.
Next up for Stetson are the Campbell Fighting Camels Monday night, December 15 at 7:00 p.m. The voices of Stetson men's basketball Murray Miller and Harry Arnold will broadcast the action; their play-by-play and analysis can be heard and the video can be seen on Hatter Vision at www.gohatters.com, the official online home of Stetson Athletics.
Tickets for all Stetson home games are available on line at www.gohatters.com. For more information call the Stetson University Ticket Office at (386) 822-8110 or email at Hattertickets@stetson.edu.
