The Central Florida men's basketball team earned a hard-fought win over a major Mid-Florida Conference rival Wednesday with a 62-60 home victory over Daytona State.
The win keeps the Patriots (16-4, 2-0 MFC) perfect in conference play early in its MFC schedule. It also exacted a measure of revenge against the Falcons (9-11, 0-3 MFC), who handed CF both of its 2009-10 conference losses and ran away with the MFC title.
CF used a remarkably balanced offensive attack to knock off the persistent Falcons. Of the seven players in the CF scoring column, all scored at least 5 and none totalled more than the 10 points each posted by Hunter Williams and Mathiang Muo. Slobodan Miljanic, the only Patriot to experience last year's Daytona disappointments first-hand, scored all 9 of his points on well-timed, game-swinging 3-pointers, while center Alhaji Fullah served as the centerpiece of an active Patriot defense that forced the Falcons into a 38 percent shooting effort. (Watch Fullah deposit a jump hook at the CF Patriots YouTube channel.)
A late Daytona rally cut a 58-49 lead to two with 4 seconds remaining, but Muo broke free from backcourt pressure, took the inbound pass and dribbled out the clock to keep the Falcons from extending the game wtih a foul.
The Patriots visit St. Johns River on Saturday, then host FSC-Jacksonville on Jan. 19.
Click here for the Panhandle Broadcasting webcast (link opens Windows Media Player).
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