FLORENCE, SC – Guard Tionne Rollins's 21 points paced five Francis Marion University players scoring in double figures, but the Patriots could not overcome a hot-shooting Emmanuel College (Ga.) squad and fell 92-74, Saturday afternoon (Feb. 11) in Conference Carolinas men's basketball play.
 
Francis Marion (13-10, 10-7) will play at Barton College on Wednesday night at 7 p.m., before concluding the regular season with two home contests.
 
Sophomore guard Farid SaintCyr Jr. came off the FMU bench to score 15 points, while senior swingman Alex Cox registered 11 points and sophomore center Jonah Pierce and freshman forward Adonis Cole 10 apiece.  Cole's total was a career high for the Charleston native that was pulled up from the Developmental Squad midway through the season. 
 
Cox led the Patriots with six rebounds.  He now stands only 15 points of becoming the 22nd Patriot to reach 1,000 career points.
 
Junior guard KJ Jones II led Emmanuel (17-7, 13-3) with 21 points, although that figure was five point below his nation-leading 25.8 ppg average.  Guard Chris Dees tallied 20 points off the bench as he shot 6-of-8 from behind the three-point arc.
 
The Lions shot 60.7 percent from the floor, including 14-of-22 from beyond the three-point arc.
 
Francis Marion's only lead came at 2-0 when Pierce scored on a stick-back hoop to open the game.  The Lions answered with 10 straight points to go up 10-2.  The margin was 20-10 when Dees drained the first of his three-point buckets.  FMU rallied to knot the score at 20-20 when Rollins converted a pair of technical foul free throws with 10:30 left before halftime.
 
Emmanuel scored the next five points, and never trailed again.  The mini-spurt was part of a 16-3 run that left the Lions holding a 36-23 advantage at the five-minute mark.  An 8-2 spurt by the Patriots trimmed the deficit to 43-36 at intermission.
 
Rollins opened the second stanza with a pull-up jumper that got FMU to within 43-38, but that was as close as the Patriots would get in the final 20 minutes.  The advantage became 10 points, at 50-40, only minutes later.  The margin would remain in double figures over the final 12:59 of the contest.  Emmanuel connected on a sizzling 69.2 percent of its shots in the second half, was 6-of-8 from behind the arc, and hit all seven of its free throws.
 
For the game, FMU connected on 44.1 percent of its field goal attempts, including 7-of-20 from three-point range, and was 7-of-8 at the foul line.  The Patriots led in many statistical categories, including points off turnovers (14-8), points in the paint (42-38), second-chance points (21-9), fast-break points (12-9), and bench scoring (29-22).

 
 
02/11/23 4:00 pm at Florence, SC
EMMANUEL (GA) 92, FRANCIS MARION 74
EMMANUEL (GA) (17-7,13-3 Confer)
Kelvin Jones 7-16 5-7 21; Chris Dees 7-9 0-0 20; Tavarus Webb 8-11 1-1 17;
Jeremiah Francis 5-7 2-2 14; Jasper Gibson 4-7 0-0 11; Kendall Latney 3-5
0-0 7; Trell Washington 0-0 2-2 2; Robert Ruesca 0-0 0-0 0; Jarrett Boyd 0-1
0-0 0; William Gray-Watson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-56 10-12 92.
FRANCIS MARION (13-10,10-7 Confe)
Tionne Rollins 7-15 5-5 21; Farid SaintCyr Jr. 6-12 0-0 15; Alex Cox 5-15
0-1 11; Adonis Cole 5-5 0-0 10; Jonah Pierce 5-8 0-0 10; Asante Turner 1-3
0-0 3; Nick Silva 1-3 0-0 2; Doug Alves 0-1 2-2 2; Austin Harrell 0-0 0-0 0;
Yohan-Steve Yebga 0-1 0-0 0; Zy'Kee Knox 0-0 0-0 0; Bryce Beamer 0-5 0-0 0.
Totals 30-68 7-8 74.
Halftime: Emmanuel (GA) 43  Francis Marion 36
3-point goals--Emmanuel (GA) 14-22 (Chris Dees 6-8; Jasper Gibson 3-6;
Jeremiah Francis 2-4; Kelvin Jones 2-3; Kendall Latney 1-1), Francis Marion
7-20 (Farid SaintCyr Jr. 3-6; Tionne Rollins 2-4; Asante Turner 1-3; Alex
Cox 1-4; Doug Alves 0-1; Bryce Beamer 0-2). Fouled out--Emmanuel (GA)-None,
Francis Marion-None. Rebounds--Emmanuel (GA) 29 (Kelvin Jones 8), Francis
Marion 33 (Alex Cox 6). Assists--Emmanuel (GA) 22 (Kelvin Jones 7), Francis
Marion 17 (Tionne Rollins 3; Alex Cox 3; Jonah Pierce 3). Total
fouls--Emmanuel (GA) 8, Francis Marion 14. Technical fouls--Emmanuel
(GA)-TEAM. A-411