Showing no signs of complacency following Saturday’s 33-point rout of Essex, Florida Tech, believe it or not, raised the bar even higher Sunday night on its way to an 81-33 trouncing of London Westside in front of a pro-Panthers crowd at Brunel University London. (Florida Tech image)
LONDON, ENGLAND – Showing no signs of complacency following Saturday’s 33-point rout of Essex, Florida Tech, believe it or not, raised the bar even higher Sunday night on its way to an 81-33 trouncing of London Westside in front of a pro-Panthers crowd at Brunel University London.
Putting on quite the display, eight Florida Tech players tallied at least seven points and a suffocating defense limited the opponent to just 20 total points after the first quarter in a contest that was decided by halftime.
Junior college transfer Rafael Casanova topped the Panthers in scoring with 11 points, as Isaac Spence chipped in with 10 of his own off the bench. Senior Corbin Jackson registered nine points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, including two high-flying dunks that drew cheers from the stands.
The Panthers struggled a bit from the field out the gate, but made 9-of-10 free throws in the opening quarter to claim a 21-13 lead after one.
From there the contest turned into a track meet, one London Westside would quickly regret.
Billy Mims
“I thought again, just like yesterday, the thing I’m most proud about was that each quarter our defense got better,” said head coach Billy Mims.
“As the game progressed, the defense just continued to step up a notch. I thought we rebounded even better than we did last night. I always believe that if you play hard, you play smart and you play together good things happen. That’s what we’ve done for two days here. We’ve had a high level of intensity and whoever we put on the floor seems to contribute in a positive way.
“Our bench, I can’t say enough about them – Isaac Spence and Akeem Johnson in particular. With our bench, one of the things we always talk about is elevating the energy. When you come off the bench, you’ve got fresh legs and have been watching the flow of the game. We want you to come in and take it to another level. I always talk to Ike (Spence) that when he checks in he must elevate the energy. I’m impressed with what he’s doing. He’s grasped his role and is playing it to perfection.”
Already in front by 13 towards the latter portion of the second period, Casanova ignited a fast break that ended with a perfect lob off the backboard to Jackson for a powerful two-handed slam worthy of a SportsCenter Top-10 Nomination.
Just minutes later, Jackson followed up with an encore as he flushed home point guard Max Fischer’s flashy behind-the-back pass to beat the first half buzzer.
Leading 68-26 entering the fourth quarter, Derek Murphy added a tip-slam off a missed layup to put an emphatic exclamation point on the Panthers’ second win in as many days.
“We have athletes, we have speed, and we like to play up and down the floor,” said Mims.
“We like a fast-paced, high octane, up-tempo game. You know, I always think that transition buckets are easy buckets. The more of those you get, the more you can open up the game. So we’re always hoping our defense will actually kick-start our offense into some easy scores. Tonight, I thought we did well with that. I thought we put a lot of pressure on them defensively and created a lot of turnovers. I’m very proud of the defense we’ve played this weekend.”
