Melbourne, Fla.—Lynn University's men's basketball team could not overcome a 53 percent shooting effort from the Florida Tech University Panthers and lost 80-67 in Sunshine State Conference Play on Saturday.
Slobodan Miljanic led the way for Lynn (13-11, 6-6 SSC) with 13 points followed by Jeremy Lampkin with 12 and Michel Vidal with 10.
Tech started the game on a 7-0 run before Josh Garcia ended the Fighting Knights' drought with a fast break layup with 16:44 left in the first half. However, the Panthers tallied an 11-2 run to reach their largest advantage of the half up 18-4 with 11:26 left in half number one.
Lynn cut the deficit down to five with 7:51 remaining in the period on a Jerrell Oxendine 3-pointer with Tech on top 25-20. The Panthers ended the half on a 12-4 run to head into the locker room with a37-24 tilt.
The Blue & White shot 22 percent from the floor in the first half and connected on 4-of-20 from downtown.
Lynn cut the Florida Tech lead down to seven on Vidal put back with 18:39 left in regulation. But the Panthers forced two Lynn turnovers over the next minute of play and scored seven straight points to go up 44-30 with 17:02 left.
After that, the closest Lynn would find themselves to Florida Tech would be 11 points on several different occasions but the Knights could not surmount Derek Hellemann's double-double of 28 points and 11 rebounds.
DeMario Fountain and Brandon Smith went for eight with Fountain adding two assists and two steals. Lynn forced 20 Florida Tech turnovers but could only capitalize with 18 points off the Tech mishaps. The Blue & White shot 33 percent from the floor for the game and only 18 percent from behind the arc.
Lynn men's basketball team continues SSC play on Wednesday, February 15, at 7:30 p.m. versus Rollins. Stay connected to LynnFightingKnights.com to access the live video. Fans can also follow the action on Twitter @LUKnights #LUMBB.
