SAINT LEO, Fla. – Saint Leo men's basketball pushed its Sunshine State Conference win streak to 3-0 after a 68-64 win over Tampa on Wednesday night inside the Marion Bowman Activities Center.
 
The Lions used a fast pace to hold the Spartans at bay, who are still seeking their first SSC win of the season. Junior Searcy paced the Lions with his fifth double-digit game of the season. Searcy scored 18 points in the full 40 minutes of action while grabbing seven boards, tallying four blocks, three assists and two steals on the night.
 
"Starting 3-0 in one of the toughest conference's in all of division II is a great thing," Head Coach Vince Alexander said following the four-point win. "We played a good first half, and now we need to follow up with a good second half and hopefully we can continue to win."
 
Isaiah Hill and Tyreece Brice continue to chip in double-digit points as Hill scored 13 points and Brice 12. To close out the starting five, DeAndre King and Drago Popovic hovered around 10 points as King had nine and Popovic eight. Hill's 13 points was his 10^th double-digit point game this season while Brice's 12 notched his eighth.
 
Alexander continued, "Seeing Junior [Searcy], Isaiah [Hill] and Tyreece [Brice] put up double-digits night in and night out is a good sign for the season. Once we get Drago [Popovic] and DeAndre [King] to play consistent, our starting five will be one of the best starting five, not only in the conference, but maybe in the division."
 
As a team, the Lions finished the night 60-percent from the free throw line and 50-percent from the field. Saint Leo picked up 13 steals on the night where they turned the ball over 16 times.
 
"We took care of the ball in the first half, but the last 20 minutes was bad," Alexander added. "We had four turnovers in the first half with four blocks and five steals and then turned the ball over 12 times in the second half alone. The eight steals was good but that does not erase the turnovers, and as a staff, we will continue to work on this."
 
The Basics
Final Score: Saint Leo 68, Tampa 64
Location: Marion Bowman Activities Center | Saint Leo, Fla.
Records: Saint Leo 6-5, 3-0 SSC | Tampa 3-4, 0-3 SSC

How It Happened…
1H | Both teams opened up the first half empty before the Spartans took a 1-0 lead on one free throw. DeAndre King would nail his first three to push the Lions ahead, 3-1. Tampa would record back-to-back dunks to tie things at 5-5 before the Lions used defensive blocks to keep the Spartans at bay in scoring while they pushed it out to a 17-7 lead with two free throws from Junior Searcy. Tampa would cut the lead with another dunk and a jumper to 17-11 before Kyran McClure and Tyreece Brice would both score points to push it back to 10, 23-13. Duke Shelton would lay it in and cut things to eight, 23-15 heading to the under eight media timeout with 7:15 on the clock. Saint Leo would maintain their lead up to the final buzzer, where the Spartans cut it to nine, 33-24. | Saint Leo 33-24 |  
 
2H | Saint Leo came out of the break and pushed the pace outscoring the Spartans 8-4 heading to the first media timeout with 15:25 to play, 31-28. Tampa would go on a run to cut the deficit to five, 46-41 with 8:32 to play. The Spartans would close the gap to one, 50-49 before the Lions gained momentum and pushed their lead back to six, 61-55 with two minutes to play. The Spartans would not go away as they chipped away at the Lions lead. A Mehki Biffle three with 29.6-ticks left would make it a 63-62 game. Junior Searcy would make two free throws, pushing it to a 65-62 game before the Spartans turned the ball over underneath the hoop with 22.0-seconds left. Saint Leo would hold off the Spartans to go on for the four-point win. | Saint Leo 68-64 |
 
Points to Note

• The Lions move to 6-5 and 3-0 in the SSC and keep their streak alive.
• Junior Searcy led the Lions on the night with 18 points on 4-9 from the field, including 2-5 from downtown. Searcy added an 8-12 mark from the charity stripe.
• Tyreece Brice's 12 points pushed his career number, in the Green and Gold closer to the 1,000 mark, standing at 946.
• Isaiah Hill added 13 points on the night on 6-11 shooting from the field.
• The starting five were responsible for 60 of the Lions' 68 points.

For Tampa

• The Spartans are still winless in the conference at 0-3.
• Duke Shelton paced Tampa with 17 points and 11 rebounds ahead of Marcel Robinson's 14 points and Pat Bacon's 11.
• As a team, Tampa shot 66.7% from the free throw line while adding a 42.6% mark from the field.

Saint Leo travels to West Palm Beach on Dec. 2 to take on Palm Beach Atlantic at 4:00 p.m. for its second SSC road game of the year. The Lions are 1-0 on the road in conference play. 
 
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