MELBOURNE, Fla. (Men's Basketball) – Florida Tech rode strong offensive performances from Jordan Majors and Sam Daniel Sunday afternoon, earning a 89-77 victory over Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras to open the Florida Tech Winter Classic at the Clemente Center.
 
"This is a good Rio Piedras basketball team," said head coach Billy Mims. "They played a pair of games in Florida this week. They played Flagler on Wednesday night up in St. Augustine and they were up two at the half. The next day they went over to Rollins to play the Tars and lost to Rollins in overtime 112-104. They took 54 threes in the game and made 24 of them.
 
"I just told the guys 'we know this team can shoot the basketball.' Tonight our main goal was to take away the three pointers and we held them to 12 today."
 
Majors and Daniel combined to score 49 of FIT's 89 total points in the contest. Majors was an efficient 7-of-12 from the field and converted 9-of-10 foul shots for a game-high 25 points, also posting six rebounds and four assists. Daniel wasn't far behind, adding 24 points, while also pulling down nine boards and dishing out four dimes.
 
Patrick Anderson and Robert Booth were the other two Panthers to reach double figures. Anderson was steady as they come, posting 15 points and 10 assists, while Booth made 6-of-7 field goals for 13 points, adding seven rebounds and a pair of blocks.
 
The Panthers were able to overcome a hot shooting night from Gallitos guard Omar Font, who drained 6-of-8 attempts, including all four three pointers, to lead UPRRP with 22 points. Krystian Medina also put up big numbers, registering 19 points, six boards and three assists.
 
Font was on fire early, scoring eight points in the first five minutes to put the Gallitos up 10-7. However, a few minutes later the Panthers re-seized the lead on a Daniel fast break layup at the 14:00 minute mark.
 
That bucket ignited a 9-0 run for FIT, giving the Panthers 20-13 lead with 12:34 to go in the opening half. The Gallitos, however, responded over the next three minutes with a 13-7 run to close the deficit to just a single point. The rest of the half, though, belonged to the Panthers, who entered halftime with an 11 point advantage.
 
The Gallitos got the FIT lead back down to as low as seven early on in the second half but the Panthers turned it on once again when it looked like momentum was turning. Midway through the second stanza FIT secured its largest lead of the game at 16 points with a 69-53 score.
 
Some sloppy play late in the game allowed UPRRP to close the gap to seven points but a pair of threes from Antonis Pefanis and Anderson quickly put the advantage back at double digits and allowed FIT to comfortably close out the game.
 
The Florida Tech Winter Classic continues on Monday. Nova Southeastern and the Gallitos kick off the day's action at 3 p.m. ET, with FIT and Point scheduled to follow at 5:30 p.m. Live audio, video and stats are available at FloridaTechSports.com/live.