BOCA RATON, Fla. – Florida Tech was unable to overcome a hot-shooting first half by Lynn Saturday afternoon and the Panthers fell to the Fighting Knights 97-88 in SSC action at the de Hoernle Center.

With the defeat, Florida Tech drops to 10-11 on the season and 4-9 in conference play while Lynn improves to 9-10 overall in 5-8 versus SSC opponents. The Panthers are now 0-8 in road games this season.  

"We need to get this monkey off our back and get a road win soon," Mims stated. "In all of our road games, our team comes out flat and we do not execute. I tell our guys all the time if we have a great first half, you can win the ball game. Lynn did that today."

Runako Ziegler had a tremendous game for Florida Tech as he led all players with 28 points on 10-of-19 shooting and an 8-of-11 effort at the free-throw line. He also had four rebounds and three steals in the game.

"Just a tremendous game from Runako, his best game as a Panther," said head coach Billy Mims. "He had great numbers across the board. He shot well all over to get his 28 points. But a stat that jumps out at me from Runako's performance is that he drew 10 fouls during the game, first player all year to do that for us."

"This is the Runako we recruited to bring to Florida Tech," Mims said. "He is a down-hill type of player who can beat his man and get to the basket in so many ways. He did a great job of that today and was a major key for us on offense."

As usual, Derek Murphy had another great game finishing with 25 points and six rebounds. Sesan Russell ended with 13 points and three rebounds. Niall Harris provided some needed production off the bench scoring 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting to go along with four rebounds. Mekhii Noble added seven points and four rebounds for the Panthers.

Florida Tech shot 29-of-60 (48.3%) during the game, including 5-of-12 from long range, and 25-of-35 at the charity stripe. Lynn was impressive shooting the ball, making 31-of-60 (51.7%) from the field and 22-of-25 free throws. The Fighting Knights were red-hot from three-point range hitting on 13-of-26 attempts.

"That 13-of-26 number sounds familiar doesn't it," exclaimed Mims. "That's the same success from three that we had in our win over Saint Leo. When you shoot the ball like that, you win games."

The Panthers did not help themselves early on as they got off to a tumultuous start offensively and allowed Lynn to jump out to a 20-6 lead less than six minutes into the game. 

Tech showed their resilience and clawed their way back into the game. The Panthers mounted a 23-10 run that trimmed the Knights' lead to 30-29 on a layup by Ziegler with 8:36 to go before halftime.

However, Lynn quickly regained momentum as the Knights got hot from the outside and initiated a deluge of threes on the Panther defense. The Knights outscored Tech 30-18 the rest of the half, with 15 of those points coming from three, and went into the break with a 60-43 lead.

The second half of the game was much closer between the teams as the Panthers outscored Lynn 45-37 in the frame. Although Florida Tech was behind by double-digits for much of the half, the squad continued to slowly chip away at the deficit.

The Panthers got the margin down to nine, 84-75, with 3:49 remaining in regulation after Murphy capped off a 7-2 run when he stole the ball away and scored an easy layup. Russell cut the deficit to eight after scoring off a steal by Noble with 1:54 to go.

Ziegler then got the final margin to seven when he converted a three-point play with less than 20 seconds left on the clock. Despite the loss, Mims was encouraged by the Panthers' performance

"I have no doubt we were the better team in the second half," he said. "We outscored them 45-37 after halftime. We stayed consistent offensively from the first half to the second. The major difference was our defense it was stellar after halftime.

"The way we defended in the second half was what we came here to do the entire game. We changed nothing in our game plan at halftime. Our guys just went out and executed."

Lynn finished with an edge in the rebounding battle 32-27 and second-chance points 16-14. The Panthers controlled several of the major stat categories as well, including points in the paint 48-34, fast-break points 16-13 and bench points 22-21.

Florida Tech will look to bounce back from the loss when the team returns home to the friendly confines of the Clemente Center for its next game.

"Over my career, we've been awfully good at the Clemente Center and it's no different this season," said Mims. "We're 10-2 on our home court. Our guys really love playing at Clemente. We love our fans. We love our pep band and cheerleaders. They bring the best out of us. I hope we come out and continue to play as confident and solid as we have all season."

The Panthers will have a tough task on their hands though as they welcome one of the top teams in the conference Wednesday in Barry, who is currently third in the SSC standings.

"Barry is one of the more successful teams in the SSC in recent history," Mims said. "They are very talented and well-coached by my good friend Butch Estes. Butch and I are longtime friends, going back to our days coaching opposing NAIA teams in South Carolina. He's a great coach and he will have his team ready to go on Wednesday."

Tip-off between the Tech and Barry is set for 7:30 p.m. The contest is the Panther's annual Coaches Powering Forward Autism Awareness Game. Fans are encouraged to come out and help the Florida Tech and Barry raise awareness for autism.

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