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Santa Fe forward Makye Boles makes a putback at the buzzer over FGC forward Axel Holmquist on Thursday. (JORDAN KROEGER/Lake City Reporter)
Antewan Webber blocked Jonathan Renois and Renois then missed a second chance as the clock wound down.
All Florida Gateway College had to do was box out. But Makye Boles came racing to the basket untouched, then pushed the rebound back up and in as the buzzer sounded to deliver Santa Fe College a thrilling road win while handing FGC another buzzer-beating loss.
Boles’ putback lifted the Saints to a 70-69 victory over the Timberwolves at the Howard Center on Tuesday night. Those were the only two points of the night for Boles in just three minutes of action, but they were needed to help Santa Fe (6-5) snap a four-game skid.
“We’ve got to do a better job interior rebounding,” FGC head coach Charles Ruise said. “Initially we play well, hands up, challenge, but then we’re ball watching. And they’re stepping around and getting those putbacks and those second shot opportunities. And that’s costing us.”
FGC (7-5) lost its second straight game at the buzzer, also falling to Central Georgia Technical College on a last-second 3-pointer this past Saturday. Learning how to finish is an ongoing battle for Ruise’s squad, which is now 3-3 in games decided by seven points or less.
Webber hit a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left to give the Timberwolves a 69-68 lead on Thursday. It was similar to Saturday’s loss, where Axel Holmquist made a layup to give the T-wolves a one-point lead with 16 seconds before they let the game slip away at the very end.
“We’re playing teams that have some experience in positions, and we’re young, we’re a little experienced, and we’re trying to get it all on the same page,” Ruise said. “We have to come in and step up throughout — offensively, defensively and in special times. If we can get that consistently down the stretch, we feel real good about our future.”
Ashton Lovette led the Saints with 16 points, while Renois finished with 13 and Karmello Brach came off the bench to score 12. Macius Towe added eight and Predrag Panisic had seven for Santa Fe, which trailed by nine in the first half but eventually turned that deficit into an 8-point lead in the second half.
The Saints shot 53% from the floor and caught fire after halftime. They shot 15 of 23 from the field in the final 20 minutes, opening the second half on an 11-2 run before eventually building a 47-39 lead with 12:39 to go.
“They did a good job with the ball screens, and sometimes they’d screen initially and then come back and rescreen,” Ruise said. “Our guys got kind of mixed up sometimes where we’re trying to go and get a double out there to slow the ball up.”
The T-wolves trailed for most of the second half until Amayoa’ah Phillips made a layup to give them a 64-63 lead with 3:52 left. Webber extended the lead to three with a pair of free throws, but Holmquist later fouled Branch shooting a 3-pointer and Branch made all three foul shots tie the game at 66 with 1:40 to go. Panisic put the Saints ahead 68-66 on a layup before Webber’s 3 gave FGC a short-lived lead up until the buzzer.
Webber led the T-wolves with 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting, scoring 19 of those in the second half after sitting most of the first half with two fouls. Phillips battled foul trouble in the second half and finished with 14 points. Oakley Lewis added nine and Isaac Broxey had six off the bench for FGC, which shot 51% from the field but only made 2 of 11 3s.
“We’ve got to come in and get in the flow of our things,” Ruise said. “We’ve got to do a better job of that. They came in and got in our flow and disrupted the things that we do. We got in a little hurry offensively, got a little sloppy, and that kind of cost us.”
It doesn’t get any easier for the T-wolves, who next host South Georgia State College on Saturday at 2 p.m. SGSC has won five of its last six and enters with a 6-3 record.
“We’ve just got to finish the game, and we will,” Ruise I think we can score with the best of them, but there’s times where we’re missing assignments that’s costing us down the stretch. But we’re not that far off.”