PANHANDLE CLASSIC: SCF 93 - GCSC 96, Manatees are (7-2)

MARIANNA, Fla.- State College of Florida Men's Basketball team suffered their second loss of the season tonight against Gulf Coast State College. The game was played at Chipola College in the Panhandle Classic Tournament. SCF fell to #5 ranked Gulf Coast State College, 96-93.

GCSC came out strong hitting eight of their first nine shots which secured an 18-2 lead. The Manatees worked hard to come within 10 points of Gulf Coast at the end of the first half. Down to 34-44 at halftime, SCF was determined to make a run and did just that scoring 69 points in the second half alone. Gulf Coast continued to answer and was 4-for-4 at the free throw line in the last 20 seconds of the game. Sophomore, Denzel Myers (19 points), connected with a three with two seconds left which cut the lead down to one point. The Manatees were forced to foul and stop the clock with .06 seconds left. SCF battled to come within three points of the Commodores but did not capture the win.

Coach Erickson said, "When we play against high level teams like Gulf Coast, we can't afford to give up a lead that big and expect to come from behind. They are led by four sophomore guards who have a ton of big game experience. The poise and experience of those guards helped them sustain their lead down the stretch when we made our run. I am extremely proud of how our team fought especially after losing Isaiah Williams (19 points) with 6 minutes to go."

Other leading performers for SCF were Larry Keys (14 points) and Savad Garner (14 pts).

"Hopefully we learn from this experience which will help us during conference play," added Erickson.

SCF plays in day two of the Panhandle Classic against Pensacola State College at 3pm EST on Saturday.