Florida Tech Comes Up Short To 7th Ranked Barry, 75-68

By  //  January 15, 2015

Drop to 0-4 in the Sunshine State Conference

Jackson-580-1
Corbin Jackson played an all-around great game Wednesday against the No. 7 Barry Buccaneers. ( Image by Linwood Ferguson )

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Florida Tech gave its best defensive effort all season Wednesday night at No. 7 Barry, but an 11-1 second-half run proved to be the difference in a 75-68 loss at the Health and Sports Center.

The Panthers now stand at 10-5 overall and 0-4 in Sunshine State Conference action, while the Buccaneers improve to 12-1, 4-0 SSC.

Billy Mims
Billy Mims

“I’m extremely proud of our guys,” head coach Billy Mims said.

“This was a tough game and it’s a tough week for us. We’re on the road and play two nationally ranked teams, both are in the top 10.”

“I thought we came in and played toe-to-toe for 40 minutes. Tonight was probably our best defensive effort of the year.”

“We battled on the boards, rebounded our tail off. I played five guys a tremendous amount of minutes. I left them out there as long as I could,” said Mims.

Jermaine Jackson led all scorers with 19 points. Chris Carter had 18, Akeem Johnson scored 13 and Corbin Jackson pitched in 12 with 15 rebounds.

His double-double was his sixth of the season and his 22nd of his career.

“Anders Haas got hot during one stretch,” Mims said. “He hit three big threes in a row. Sandwiched in there was a big two by Savad Garner. That 11 points gave them a little separation.

“They couldn’t put us away. We fought back and played our tail off. Twice we’ve been on the road, at Saint Leo and here, we played two great programs and two great games.”

Corbin Jackson
Corbin Jackson

Corbin Jackson also had a great game defensively, registering three blocks and one steal in 40 minutes.

Jackson held back-to-back SSC Player of the Week Yunio Barrueta to just seven points. He entered the game averaging the third-most points in the conference at 19.3.

“We seem to play a lot better basketball on the road. It’s too bad we haven’t played like this at home for our fans in the Clemente Center. Tonight it could have gone either way. This team is a top 10 team in the country and tonight we looked like we were too,” said head coach Billy Mims.

The Panthers outshot the Buccaneers, 45-percent to 35.7-percent. They also shot better from the arc, 38.5-percent to Barry’s 27-percent. Barry, however, committed just six turnovers to FIT’s 11.

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The week won’t get any easier for the Panthers as they travel to No. 6 Florida Southern on Saturday. The game, scheduled to tip-off at 7:30 p.m., will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the 5:30 p.m. women’s game.

Earlier on Wednesday, the women remained undefeated at 14-0 and 4-0 in the SSC with a 75-58 win over Barry.

Live video, audio and stats will be available for both games on Saturday at FloridaTechSports.com