It's go time for the 2021 Sunshine State Conference Tournament Champions, the Saint Leo University men's basketball team! The Lions open the 2021-22 season on Nov. 12-13 at home, as the Green and Gold plays host to the GSC vs SSC Challenge at the Marion Bowman Activities Center. Saint Leo, who is receiving votes in the NABC Preseason poll, welcomes in no. 20 Alabama-Huntsville, Montevallo, and Tampa.
 
Free T-Shirt? Free Chick-Fil-A meal? Indeed! Friday, for the home opener, to invite all and welcome fans back into the arena which hasn't been filled for basketball since spring of 2020, the Lions will be handing out a Stronger Together t-shirt to all Saint Leo fans in attendance. Saturday, the first 100 fans into the Bowman Center will be handed a free meal voucher for Chick-Fil-A, Zephyrhills, a proud partner of Saint Leo Athletics.
 
GSC vs SSC Challenge
Three of the four teams playing in the Gulf South Conference vs Sunshine State Conference Challenge at the Marion Bowman Activities Center will be looking to open play for the first time in 2021-22. The lone team to have played any games is the 20^th-ranked Alabama-Huntsville who dropped the first two games of the year.
 
Teams: NABC RANKS #20 Alabama-Huntsville, RV Saint Leo, Tampa, Montevallo
Schedule:
        Nov. 12 5:30 PM – Saint Leo vs Alabama-Huntsville
        Nov. 12 7:30 PM – Tampa vs Montevallo
        Nov. 13 1:00 PM – Saint Leo vs Montevallo
        Nov. 13 3:00 PM – Tampa vs Alabama-Huntsville
Tickets: Saint Leo is CARD ONLY, no cash will be accepted for ticketing or concession purposes. For more information on tickets at Saint Leo events, go to saintleolions.com/tickets.
        $6 General Admission
        $5 Senior Citizen
        $4 Military & Visiting Students (w/valid ID)
        FREE: Children 12 & under, Saint Leo Students, Faculty & Staff and immediate family.
Broadcast / Live Stats: All games will have a live broadcast feed on the Sunshine State Conference Digital Network at sunshinestateconference.tv/saintleo, while stats will be provided at saintleolions.com/stats. For more information, go to saintleolions.com/coverage.
 
#20 Alabama-Huntsville (0-2) – Roster | Schedule | Stats
The Chargers opened the 2021-22 season with two setbacks to Seattle Pacific (77-71) and Embry-Riddle (103-96) at the opening tournament in St. Joseph, Mo. After two games, Chaney Johnson, Luke Burnett, and CJ Williamson are the leading scorers on the team each with over 30 points, averaging over 15.5 points per game apiece. Johnson is averaging a team-best 24.5 with 49 points on the season. A year ago, the Chargers played to a 15-4 record including a trip to the NCAA South Regional, ending the season to overall no. 1 seed Flagler, 89-75 in the second round. The Chargers went 2-0 at the 2019-20 challenge with wins over both Saint Leo (56-48) and Tampa (75-68).
 
Montevallo (0-0) – Roster | Schedule
The Falcons started their season off with a 67-63 exhibition loss at DePaul University. Montevallo saw two players score in double-figures against the Division I opponent in Jason King and Braxton Bertolette each with 16 points in the loss. A year ago, the Falcons went 8-9 in an abbreviated season with a season-ending loss to UAH 82-62 in the GSC tournament. Montevallo went 1-1 at the 2019-20 challenge with a 72-64 win over Tampa and a 71-58 loss to Saint Leo.
 
Tampa (0-0) – Roster | Schedule
The Spartans started the abbreviated 2021 season off with a win over the Lions, 79-75, before struggling down the stretch to a 3-4 record, falling to Florida Tech in back-to-back games, including the SSC tournament quarterfinals double-overtime loss, 90-84. In 2019-20, Tampa dropped both matchups against the GSC foes, UAH and Montevallo at the challenge and look to bounce back with a strong start Friday.
 
History vs Alabama-Huntsville & Montevallo
In recent history, the Chargers hold a 6-1 record against the Lions. The Green and Gold's lone win came on November 14, 2015, where the Lions won 93-90 at the Marion Bowman Activities Center in an overtime thriller against then-no. 12 UAH.
 
The Lions and Falcons are 1-1 in most recent history. Montevallo took the first game of the series 74-66 in 2018-19 in Tampa during the GSC vs SSC Challenge where Saint Leo got revenge a year later in the same tournament on the Falcons' home court, 71-58 in 2019-20. Wade Coomer was second on the team in scoring that night with 14 points.
 
2021-22 Saint Leo Men's Basketball
Saint Leo returns nine of its top-10 scorers from last season including the top four which consisted of senior guards Rusty Moorer (14.9 ppg.) and Frank Webb Jr. (14.8 ppg.) and forwards Jared Coomer (11.3 ppg.) and Cantia Rahming (11.3 ppg.). The core four also were the top-four rebounding leaders on the squad a season ago with Webb taking the top spot at 8.3 boards per contest followed by Rahming who pulled down 7.6 rebounds per game.
 
Four newcomers look to add to the already dynamic roster including transfers Rob Fry, Francis Sio and Malik Tyson and freshman Valentino Hart Jr. Fry was a prolific scorer in his first season of collegiate basketball at Culver Stockman College where he earned Basketball Heart of America Freshman of the Year while averaging over 20 points per game. He was also a State Champion in high school in the basketball-rich state of Indiana. Sio is also a former State Champion out of North Carolina and spent the previous four years at Wingate University. During the last full season (2019-20), Sio appeared in all 28 games for Wingate while scoring 11.8 points per contest. Tyson spent the last two seasons at Lawson State C.C. in Alabama where he averaged 12.4 points per game while hitting over 42 percent of his shots. Hart, the lone freshman on the 2021-22 squad, is a local product out of Tampa Prep where he averaged 13.4 points per contest and was selected to the 2020-21 TBBCA Senior East West All-Star Game. 
 
Sunshine State Conference Preseason Poll
After claiming the 2021 SSC Tournament title in March 2021, Saint Leo was tabbed to finish second in the SSC Preseason Poll behind Nova Southeastern, who sat out all of 2020-21. The Lions opened the abbreviated season with a setback to Tampa before running off four straight wins to play in the SSC tournament with a 4-1 record.
 
With the blind-draw SSC tournament, Saint Leo was seeded second and hosted the first round, knocking off visiting Barry 67-58. Advancing to the semifinals, the Lions then took down the visiting Florida Tech Panthers 78-68 before hosting Florida Southern and defeating the Moccasins by 13-points, 83-70, to capture the programs second SSC title.

For the latest news, updates, and information on the Saint Leo men's basketball team be sure to visit SaintLeoLions.com. Fans can also stay up-to-date on the latest Lions news by following Saint Leo Athletics on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.