Men's Basketball | 3/6/2015 10:03:00 PM
Box Score KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Barry University's men's basketball team tied a school record for wins in a season, beating Saint Leo for the third time this season, 71-57, in the Sunshine State Conference quarterfinals Friday at Silver Spurs Arena.
The Buccaneers (23-4) won their first postseason game since 2010, using a 50 percent field goal shooting effort to move into Saturday's 7:30 p.m. semifinals against Nova Southeastern (12-15). It was Barry's first win in Silver Spurs Arena since the postseason tournament moved here three years ago.
"Each team writes its own book," Barry coach
Butch Estes said after picking up his first postseason win with the Bucs. "This team is writing its book. Today is the post-chapter. I feel like anytime you get in a tournament and you win the first game … I think most coaches would tell you the first game is always the toughest."
Barry broke the fourth tie of the game for good when
Anders Haas canned a triple with 16:41 to go. Marcus Dewberry scored 12 seconds later as the Lions (14-15) cut the gap to one. But the Buccaneers went on a 7-0 run, touched off by an
Arie Williams' triple to extend the lead to 42-34.
The Lions got it back down to four on a free throw by Ron Foxx at the 12:09 mark. But Barry responded when
Savad Garner scored on one of
Deric Hill's seven assists, and
Tray Leonard added a bucket in the paint less than a minute later to pad the Bucs' lead to 10.
Juan Ferrales hit a triple with 8:43 to go, extending Barry's lead to 13. The Bucs eventually built a 17-point lead to put away the Lions.
Four Barry starters scored in double figures.
Yunio Barrueta had 13 points and 12 rebounds. Garner had 12 points and five boards. Ferrales finished with 13 points, and Hill had 10 points to go along with his seven assists and two steals.
"I just tried to go hard every chance I got," said Garner, who reached double figures for the sixth time this season. "I guess it's just wanting to compete."Hill moved within 10 assists of breaking his own school season record set last year. He is the only Barry player to record over 200 assists in a season, having done so twice.
"We have so many guys that can knock down shots," Ferrales said. "We have a lot of depth so we can go to the bench."
Fox scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and Cale Girten had 14 points for the Lions, which went eight of 25 from long range. Barry shot six of 13 from three-point range, and sank 13 of 16 free throws. The Lions were 15 of 18 from the stripe.
Saint Leo built an 11-point first half lead 5:51 into the game, but the Bucs recovered to take a 32-26 lead into the break. The Bucs shot 11 of 22 from the field in the first half.
Barry took a 25-21 lead on Ferrales' layup with 5:58 left in the half, but Foxx hit a three-pointer and was fouled, converting the four-point play to tie the game up for the third time. Williams' triple pushed the Bucs' lead back to five.
Williams had nine points on three of four 3-point shooting.
Barry endured an overtime test with Nova the last time the two teams met.
"This league just demands every single night," Estes said. "There's never a rest."
