DeLand, Fla. – The reigning ASUN Champions Stetson Hatters earned their first victory of the season, 94-75, over New College of Florida. Five different players scored double digits for the Hatters in the victory.
Stetson began the first half a bit sluggishly falling behind 5-0 when
Jordan Wood drained a shot from beyond the arc for his first points as a Hatter. With twelve minutes left in the first half, Stetson found themselves trailing 22-12. The team put together a 10-0 run tying the game at 22, with eight of those points coming from
Tristan Gross. The most emphatic of his buckets was a dunk coming off of a steal he forced.
The Mighty Banyans tried to pull away, but the Hatters took the lead on a driving layup from Jamie Phillips Jr with just under seven minutes left in the half. The two teams continued trading the lead as time winded down in the first half, but Stetson went into the half trailing 39-37.
Coming out for the second half, New College of Florida pulled out to a ten-point lead. Gross, Wood, and
Alex Doyle all hit from three to cut the defecit to one. Stetson added onto their run, making it an 18-0 run and taking a 60-52 lead.
Stetson didn't wait long to extend on their leading. They exploded with a 14-0 run as four different players contributed to push the score to 77-57. The Hatters started to stack runs as they pushed their lead to 24 when
Abramo Canka found
Josh Massey who slammed it home. The teams began to empty their bench as time winded down and
Stefano Alesso's dunk sealed the win for Stetson, 94-75.
Gross led the team in scoring with 18 points followed by Phillips Jr with 17. The other players in double digits were Massey with 14, Wood with 11 and Alesso with 11. Eleven different players also recorded a rebound as Alesso and Phillips Jr tied for the team lead with seven. Alesso,
Daniel Macgregor, and Phillips Jr made their first collegiate appearances, and all scored their first collegiate points.
As a team, the Hatters shot 52.3 percent from the field and 28 percent from three. They more than doubled up the Mighty Banyans in rebounds and committed less fouls than the opponent.
Stetson will now host Omaha on Thursday, November 7 at 8pm. That game will be the second game of the Double Hatter as Women's Basketball will face off against Fort Lauderdale at 5:30pm.
