LAKELAND, Fla. – Despite outscoring the Cedarville Yellow Jackets in the second half, Saint Leo men's basketball fell to the Yellow Jackets 77-70 at the Streamline Sales Arena in the Jenkins Field House Wednesday night. 
 
Saint Leo (4-7) trailed by eight at the break and cut it to within one point late in the second half before Cedarville (7-5) pulled away for the seven-point victory. Both teams closed out the Mocs Christmas Classic with a 1-1 record. 
 
The Lions saw four players score in double-digits led by Kyran McClure's 15 points. McClure added four steals and three assists to his stat line. Daniel Duarte, Isaiah Hill and Yalen Reed joined McClure in double-figures with 13, 12, and 10 points, respectively. Reed paced the team with seven rebounds as Hill led the team in assists with four.
 
Cedarville saw Grant Zawadzki score a game-high 34 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field including a 6-for-10 night from downtown.

How It Happened

• A slow start for both teams as it took three minutes before both teams sank a three-pointer for a 3-3 tie.
• Cedarville raced out to a seven-point lead, 10-3, forcing the Lions to call timeout with 14:33 to play.
• A quick 5-0 run cut it to two, 10-8, after an Isaiah Hill old fashion three-point play and Junior Searcy dunk with 14 minutes to go.
• The Yellow Jackets extended their lead to 10, 23-13, before the Lions erased it to just four points, 29-25 with two minutes to play after a Yalen Reed layup.
• Cedarville closed the half with a 4-0 spurt for an eight-point lead at the break, 33-25.
• The Lions saw Isaiah Hill, Daniel Duarte and Kyran McClure open the second half on a 10-4 run to close the gap to two points, 37-35 capped by a McClure three-pointer.
• Saint Leo continued to push as Daniel Duarte drained a long-ball to make it 41-40 Yellow Jackets with 14:49 to go.
• A 10-2 run by Cedarville made it 51-42 with 12 to play before the Yellow Jackets made it a double-digit lead, 11 points with 8:18 to go, 58-47.
• After Cedarville went up by 13, 61-48, a five minute 12-2 run by the Green and Gold closed it to just a three point game, 63-60, with 3:53 remaining in regulation.
• Cedarville pushed it to eight points, 68-60 before holding off the Lions the rest of the way going on for the seven-point win, 77-70.

Up Next
Saint Leo will take a break before returning to action on Dec. 29 when the Green and Gold dip back into Sunshine State Conference play hosting Rolling at 4 p.m. in the Marion Bowman Activites Center.

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