PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) men's basketball team battled through a 91-59 non-conference road loss to the 25
th-ranked University of West Florida (UWF) Argonauts on Sunday afternoon at the UWF Fieldhouse.
A 3-pointer from the right side by sophomore
William Loyd put the Badgers up 3-2 over the Argos (9-0) at 18:12, but UWF answered with a put-back layup by Jarrett Henderson to retake a 4-3 lead at 17:15. Both teams ratchetted up the defense over the next two minutes as neither side found any more points as they headed into first media timeout at 15:19. UWF would finally break the drought at 13:59 with a 10-foot short jumper from right side.
The Argos stretched out an 11-5 advantage by the second media break at 11:35 and came out of the timeout to find a 3-pointer at the top of the key to make it a 14-5 bulge. SHC trailed 19-7 at 9:57, but senior guard
Matevz Rojc cut through traffic in the lane for a nifty fingertip roll and sophomore
Gresyn Rogers put two free throws through the rim to keep SHC within range at 19-11.
Trailing 21-14 at 8:22,
Chase Shellman got behind the UWF defense for an easy lay in, but five consecutive 3-pointers by the Argos expanded the SHC deficit to 36-22 with 5:29 left in the half. The Argos would carry a 44-31 cushion into halftime.
UWF expanded the advantage to 53-35 in the first four minutes of the second period and to 61-40 with 12 minutes remaining.
Loyd and junior
Brandon Fischer both scored 11 points for the Badgers and sophomore
Andrew Dotson pitched in another 10 points. As a team, Spring Hill shot 38.6% (22-57) from the floor including 23.5% (4-17) from 3-point distance. The Badgers lost 17 turnovers versus 10 steals by West Florida, but completed 73.3% (11-15) of their free throws.
Moter Deng put 26 points in the buckets for UWF and Rashaan Benson found 13 points for the home team. DJ Thorpe contributed another 15 points to the Argos cause. The Argos shot 49.3% (34-69) overall and 40.6% (13-32) from 3-point distance while dropping 10 fumbles versus five steals by Spring Hill. UWF made just 58.8% (10-17) of their free throws, but earned a 40-36 edge in rebounds.
The Badgers (2-6) will host non-conference rival the Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM) Warhawks (4-4) at the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
