PENSACOLA, Fla. – A 13-4 run by the University of West Florida (UWF) Argonauts dug too deep of a hole for the Spring Hill College (SHC) men's basketball team in an 83-72 non-conference road loss to the University of West Florida (UWF) Argonauts at the UWF Field House on Saturday afternoon.
Both teams struggled to find their shooter's touch in the game's early going as the Argonauts (3-5) finally found the bottom of the net with a layup at with 3:10 off the clock and the score stood at just 4-3 in favor of UWF with over four minutes gone. The score remained 4-3 until senior guard
Pat McNamara of Arlington Heights, Ill. drained a 3-pointer at 14:12 and sophomore forward
Brent Smith from St. Louis, Mo. completed a backdoor layup at 13:33.
A timeout by the Badgers at 11:10 found SHC clinging to a 10-7 advantage and holding UWF to just 15.4% (2-13) from the field, but the Argos immediately knocked down a 3-pointer to knot the game at 10-10 and used 2-of-3 free throws to take a 12-10 lead with 10 minutes left in the half. Four minutes later senior guard
Gresyn Rogers of Casa Grande, Ariz. sank two free throws to keep SHC within 19-17 and then sank a long jumper to make it 19-19 at 5:16. Rogers stayed hot by draining a 3-pointer on the next trip down the floor to stake the Badgers to a 22-20 bulge at the final media timeout of the half.
Two more free throws by Rogers made it a 24-20 Badger lead before SHC stunned the Argos with consecutive fast-break layups by freshman guard
Sage McKenna of nearby Fort Walton Beach coming off ¾-court cross-court passes. UWF, nevertheless, rallied and took a 33-31 lead just seconds before halftime off a layup and a successful foul shot.
The lid went back on the SHC rim for the first crucial 3½ minutes of the second half whereas the Argos drained three 3-pointers to take their largest lead to that point at 44-32 with 16:30 remaining. Senior forward
Chase Shellman of Louisville, Ky. broke the drought for the Badgers with a fingertip roll at 16:16, but at the first media timeout SHC still trailed 46-35.
After falling behind by as much as 13 points in the second half, Spring Hill rallied to slice the lead down to 69-62 with 3 minutes to play, but one minute later the lead would creep back up to 74-63. Rogers found another 3-pointer to keep the Badgers within 74-66 with 1:24 on the clock, but UWF would all but seal the outcome with a fast break alley oop dunk with 50 seconds remaining.
Rogers put a final tally of 23 points in the buckets and Shellman had 12 points with a game-high 11 rebounds to pace the Badgers. Smith scored 11 and McNamara added 10 points.
SHC shot a 40% (26-65) from the field and 27.3% (6-22) from 3-point range. As has been an Achilles Heel for the Badgers this season, SHC turned the ball over 16 times versus 5 steals by the Argos resulting in 12 points off turnovers for UWF. Spring Hill also suffered a 49-38 deficit in rebounding that UWF turned into a 12-9 advantage in second chance points. Badger players made 66.7% (14-21) of their free throw attempts.
Jon Brown scored a game-high 31 points for the Argos as UWF shot 43.1% (28-65) from the floor and 33.3% (7-21) from 3-point distance while losing 15 turnovers to 10 steals by the Badgers. The Argos completed 66.7% (20-30) of their free throw opportunities.
The Badgers (1-8, 0-2 SIAC West) now take a week off for fall semester final examinations before taking on the Clark Atlanta University (CAU) Panthers (1-8, 1-0 SIAC East) in a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) home match in the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center on Monday, December 16, at 7:30 p.m.
