Barrage of 3-pointers bury Golden Bears
Box Score
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- The tropical climate in South Florida leaves residents susceptible to sudden downpours at any time of the day.
The Miles men's basketball team caught it's own unfortunate deluge of moisture Tuesday night as Lynn made it rain 3-pointers in an 81-58 defeat in the first leg of a 4-game, 10-day Florida excursion. The Fighting Knights (4-4) shot more than half their field goal attempts from beyond the arc (32-of-61) and made as many buckets from distance as they did inside the 3-point line (13).
The Golden Bears (2-6), who got 14 points from
Javier McKinney and 13 points and six rebounds from
Carl Garcia, lost for the third consecutive game. The Golden Bears shot 52 percent from the field and were only outrebounded by two (35-33), but Lynn had 16 offensive rebounds to keep possessions alive and forced 23 turnovers that led to 28 points to take control of the game midway through the second half.
Miles trailed by nine early but a bucket by
Eric Halliwell (four points, two blocks) gave the Golden Bears their first lead, 20-19, with 7:28 left in the first half. A
Sheldon Wright (five points) jumper at the 5:21 mark pushed the Miles advantage to 26-22. But the team would not make another basket in the half while Lynn, led by Kevin O'Brien (22 points, 10 rebounds, 6-of-12 3-pointers), continued to knock down 3-pointers. He made two triples, the last coming with three seconds remaining, to give his team a 32-28 halftime lead.
The Fighting Knights made 10 baskets in the first half, eight of them were from long distance. While the Fighting Knights did not dial long distance as much over the final 20 minutes, they got hot late to salt the game away. After falling behind double figures early in the second half,
E. Reginald Smalls cut the deficit to 60-54 with just less than seven minutes remaining. But O'Brien drained three 3s while Terrell Rogers (10 points) knocked down a fourth as part of a 14-3 run that put the game away with 3:23 left.
Marquan Botley and Jamal Palmer each had 13 points for Lynn.
Joshua Johnson (12 points, three assists) and
Shaquille Cook (six points, eight rebounds, three steals) contributed for Miles, which plays at Florida Southern Friday with tip-off scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
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