Box Score The Hatters returned to form Friday night beating the Royals 84-66.
"I'm happy with how we responded after a tough loss," said Head Coach
Donnie Jones. "We showed much effort off the bench and controlled the tempo from the start."
The Hatters shot right out of the gate opening an 14-2 lead thanks to a 12-0 run. Swenson and
Stephan Swenson and
Aubin Gateretse had their fingerprints all over the offense as they scored the first 11 points. Defensively, Stetson allowed Queens to hit their first shot before forcing them to miss their next six shots.
Treyton Thompson and
Cyncier Harrison hit big shots with the second unit on the floor to keep a double-digit lead for the Hatters. The Royals made a run taking the Hatters lead down to five, but Stetson would take the lead into half 40-34.
To start the second half Smith would make his presence known. On an offensive rebound, he would find
Alec Oglesby for a three to push the Hatters to a 43-34 lead. A couple of possessions later Smith would once again grab an offensive rebound and find
Jalen Blackmon for a three. Smith made the Hatters next bucket as well, this time from beyond the arc, keeping the Royals from closing the gap. Smith on the Hatters next possession hit a layup while drawing contact. He converted the free throw giving Stetson a 54-42 lead. Thompson subbed back into the game getting another block on the defensive end and the ball found him on offensive. He put home the layup to close out the Hatters' 8-0 run. With the Hatters up 59-44, Blackmon forced a steal and drove down the lane slamming it home. On the Hatters next possession, the ball found Blackmon again as he hit from beyond the arc making it 64-46. With the Hatters up 69-50, Queens broke off an 8-0 run attempting to reel in Stetson, but
Alec Oglesby shut that down with a big three making it 72-58. The Hatters had the Royals on the ropes and made them pay in the paint. Layups from Swenson, Blackmon and Thompson pushed the Hatters lead to 16. After a Queens miss, Swenson grabbed the rebound and underhand tossed the ball down the court to Blackmon. Blackmon all alone drove into the paint and slammed it home once again, bringing the bench to their feet. Stetson closed out the game by a score of 84-66.
Blackmon led the Hatters in scoring with 19 points going 8-18 from the field, and 3-8 from three. Swenson followed close behind as he picked up 16 points going 7-15 from the field and 2-6 from three. He also tallied seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. Thompson also finished with 16 points, shooting 6-7 from the field, 1-2 from beyond the arc and 3-8 from the line. He also grabbed seven boards while tallying four blocks more than doubling his blocks on the season. Smith, in his fourth game back, earned his first double-double by scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Four of which were offensive rebounds.
As a team the Hatters hit 50.8% from the field, 40.9% from beyond the arc and 68.8% from the free throw line. Thompson tallied half of Stetson's free throw attempts in this game. The team saw 23 points come from the bench, the most since December. The team also forced 14 turnovers and turned that into 18 points while also picking up 13 second chance points.
Stetson will look to carry this momentum into next week when they host Chicago State. That game will take place on Monday, Jan. 15 at 7pm.
