Jan. 2, 2008
PENSACOLA, Fla. - The West Florida men's basketball team outscored the Warriors of Rochester College 18-7 in the final 10 minutes of the game to pull out a 61-56 win. The Argonauts led 25-24 at the half, and after the Warriors connected on back to back three point shots, the Argos trailed 49-43. West Florida, 8-4 on the year, stepped up the defense and allowed only three baskets in the final ten minutes to pull out the win.
In the first half, West Florida raced out to a 9-2 lead; however, the Warriors then went on a 13-2 run, sparked by three 3-pointers from Odai Baylor during the stretch. The Argos only shot 30% in the first half, but took a one point lead into the intermission. Meanwhile, Baylor scored 18 of the Warriors 24 points in the first half. During the second half, West Florida locked down the defense on Baylor, and allowed him only one field goal attempt and zero points, in the final 20 minutes.
Head Coach Don Hogan thought his team was outplayed, but they made the plays when they needed to. "I thought our effort was not very good. I don't think we came ready to play, and I thought they out-played us, and probably deserved to win the game. We made a couple of plays in the last six or seven minutes, and I will say I think our defense was better the last nine minutes of the game, but I didn't think we played very well and we're fortunate to get the win. With a game like this, there's a lot of reason to be concerned. I'm happy to get the win, but we've got to play better than this."
Kenny Holmes, the Gulf South Conference leader in Rebounding, pulled down 13 boards for the third consecutive game, and then added a team high 13 points, along with Josh Jackson, to stay within the lucky 13 theme. Jackson scored eight of his 13 points in the second half and put the Argos up 50-49 with a driving layup with 7:14 to play, and the Argos never trailed again. Jackson also drained a big three pointer to help put away the Warriors, who dropped to 7-8 on the year.
Jackson missed two games with injury and came back with a strong performance. "I'm happy we got the win, but we need to work on our defense, closing out and just pick up the intensity to not just win, but win by a good enough margin to where we can feel comfortable," said Jackson. "We feel we're better than 8-4, really-a lot of the losses that we had were because of ourselves. Our team is really focused and is putting forth the effort to do better and set our record to not lose any more games."
The Argonauts have won six of the last seven games, and boasts the conference best in blocks as a team, and field goal defense as a team. Individually, Charles Bouie leads the conference in blocks, while Deondre Boynton has the conference best assist totals, and Holmes is the top rebounder. Bouie recorded eight points, six rebounds, and three block shots in today's win, while Boynton chipped in with seven assists. Rod Doss scored 11 points and came up with four steals, while Ryan Henry added eight points and five rebounds.
West Florida will play at home again this Saturday, as they host Wesley College in a 2:30 game, This will be the fourth home game in a six game homestand. The Argos will host Delta State on January 7th, and take on North Alabama in the opening conference game on January 12th.
