MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (January 30, 2021) – The Webber International University men's basketball team dropped the third and final game of its season series with St. Thomas University, falling to the Bobcats for the second time this season and this time by a score of 74-70 on Saturday inside the Fernandez Family Center.
After the Warriors closed out the first half leading 35-33 on two free throws by
Loro Natana with only nine seconds left, St. Thomas opened up the second half by hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to jump ahead by four at 39-35.
Then with St. Thomas up 11 at 63-52 with only five minutes remaining, the Warriors went on an 11-2 run in less than three minutes to get within two at 65-63 with 2:11 left to play on two free throws by
Eddie Davis.
The Bobcats responded with a layup to make it a two-possession game at 67-63 with 1:57 left, and then in the final minute, St. Thomas went 5-for-6 from the free throw line to close out the win.
Webber's Head Coach
Gabriel Rutledge said, "It was a tough road loss against a very good team. I thought out guys played hard on both ends of the floor, but unfortunately, we made a few mistakes late in the game and missed too many shots at the rim. We will continue to battle and grow as players, and as men. Go Warriors."
Rasheem Etienne led the Warriors in scoring with a new career-high 26 points on awesome 13-for-16 shooting from the free throw line.
Jaylon Myles had 13 points and a team-high six rebounds, and Davis had 11 points on 50 percent (4-8) shooting.
Lastly, Natana and
Marcus Massey both had eight points as Natana was 3-for-4 from the field and Massey was 2-for-2 from the field, 2-for-2 from three, and 2-for-2 from the free throw line.
With the loss, Webber fell to 9-15 overall and 5-9 in The Sun Conference while St. Thomas, which had lost four of its five games since its last win over Webber on January 14, improved to 7-8 and 6-7.
Next, the Warriors will look to kick off the final month of the regular season with their first win of the year over Thomas University. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 2, inside the Sabbagh Athletic Center.
