Harden Goes for 27 as Saints Run Past St. John's 82-69
February 8, 2012
February 8, 2012 Contact: Scott Jamison 352-395-5616 scott.jamison@sfcollege.edu
SF MEN'S BASKETBALL
HARDEN GOES FOR 27 AS SAINTS RUN PAST ST. JOHN'S RIVER, 82-69
Gainesville, FL – Kevin Harden scored a season high 27 points on Wednesday night against St. John's River State College, pacing the FCSAA #2/NJCAA #17 Saints (22-3, 7-1 MFC) to an 82-69 victory. Harden nailed five threes in the second half, scoring 19 of his 27 over the final 20 minutes. The win moves SF to 22-3 overall and 7-1 in the MFC, a game ahead of College of Central Florida for first place.
"I thought we did a nice job tonight for most of the game," said SF coach Chris Mowry. "We shot the ball well, knocked down some threes and did a pretty good job on defense besides a seven minute stretch in the second half."
Santa Fe controlled the game from the outset, jumping out to a 22-3 lead just seven minutes into the game. The Saints kept the pressure up and took a 42-25 lead in to the half time break.
SF came out flat in the second half and SJRSC cut the lead quickly to 49-44 seven minutes in. From there the Saints took over and never looked back. Paul Stone nailed a three to push the lead to 52-44 and Harden followed with three straight threes to make it 61-48.
"We talked at the break about not letting up on them," said Mowry. "We didn't really execute like we needed to for the first six or seven minutes, but some of that credit has to go to St. John's. They fought hard and didn't let up. When it was a five point game, it could have gone either way. Kevin and Paul bailed us out with some big threes."
Junior McLeod gave Santa Fe their largest lead of the game when he made a layup at the 2:54 mark to make the score 77-57. Matt Conway put the finishing touches on the win by slamming home an alley-oop from AJ Roberts.
Marko Djekovic 11, Paul Stone 11 and Junior McLeod 10 joined Harden in double figures. Harden also led SF in rebounds with eight and Djekovic had a team high six assists.
"Hopefully the momentum and out shooting carries over to the game on Saturday," said Mowry. Central Florida is an extremely challenging environment. We will go down there and give them our best shot."
The Saints meet College of Central Florida (19-7, 6-2 MFC) on Saturday, February 11 at 7:30 PM in a pivotal Mid-Florida Conference contest. The winner takes a significant advantage in the race for the MFC title.
The teams have so far split the season series and Saturday's game will go a long way towards determining the eventual champion. Should Santa Fe win, they will have a two game lead and the tie breaker with three games to play.
For complete schedules and more information on Saints Men's Basketball, please visit santafesaints.com. To see game photos and other updates, follow Santa Fe College Athletics on Facebook.
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