MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (December 8, 2022) - St. Thomas University Men's Basketball (9-2, 3-2 SUN) opened the flood gates early against Florida National University (1-6) to pick up their ninth victory of the season. On Thursday afternoon from the Fernandez Family Center Gym. 

The game started out with a layup from D'Andre Johnson. Florida National quickly evened it up with a bucket of their own. Back-to-back three-point baskets courtesy of Milton Matthews and Jordan Hernandez helped give some early space. That would just be the beginning of a big scoring night for both players. A 23-5 run over 10 minutes would give a big gap in the game. 

Matthews had a tremendous first half offensively, scoring 24 points. The offense shot over 50 percent from the field and 48 percent from behind the arc. The assists continue to pile up with another double-digit first half with 13 assists. 

The second half was not much different with Matthews who came out and tied his career-high of 35 points. Matthews shot an unbelievable 72 percent from the field and just about 70 percent from behind the arc knocking down nine three-pointers. Dalon Dean picked up where Matthews left off from the bench adding 20-point performance and going 6-10 from range. Fred Mulbah, the current NAIA assists leader helped spread the floor in this dominant performance with nine assists. 

St. Thomas owned the stat sheet lop siding in rebounds 51-32, assists 24-12, bench points 35-8, and points off turnovers 23-4. St. Thomas had defensive presence all game forcing 18 turnovers. The fast-paced offense from Coach Crarey had all the momentum in favor STU. 

The Bobcats will play in an exhibition against Florida Atlantic next week on the road December 14, tip-off Is scheduled for 7 p.m. 

-STU-