Jozenville sinks two free throws to clinch victory over Seton Hill, brings Saints closer to .500 mark
By Devon Jeffreys
His teammates call him “old man” but for the Flagler College men’s basketball team this season, Sam Jozenville has been the man.
Jozenville has put the Saints on his back in the last few weeks and is the main reason why Flagler (9-11) has been successful of late.
Jozenville, a senior, has two 30-point games this season including a career-high 31 in a loss to Edward Waters
“He’s had a great senior year,” Coach Bo Clark said. “He’s actually become more of a scorer for us this year and I think this is probably the most scoring he’s done in his whole career.”
As of Jan. 27, Jozenville is averaging 19.6 points per game. His most recent performance was a 27-point effort against Seton Hill on Jan. 27 in which he made free throws to tie and win the game with one second on the clock.
“I was real nervous,” Jozenville said. “My knees were shaking. I was talking to myself — just had to follow through.”
Jozenville said that when he’s on the court he just tries to be himself, and as for the Saints, they don’t want to think about where they would be without him. Flagler entered the winter break 4-8 after a tough loss to NCAA Div. II Saint Leo. The Saints, however, have won five of their last eight and continue to march toward the .500 mark for the season. Jozenville’s play has been the catalyst.
“He’s definitely the leader of this team,” junior forward Bryan Borstelmann said. “As a senior captain, he’s really been helping us out a lot.” Borstelmann is second on the team with 11.8 ppg and has a team-leading 7.4 rebounds per game. Strong play from guards Daniel Marsh (10.9 ppg) and J.P. Clark (10.6 ppg) has also kept the Saints from sinking.
After a 137-43 victory against Florida Christian, the Saints seemed to be primed for a big second half, but they lost their sixth straight on the road against Edward Waters. They then traveled to South Carolina for the first of two meetings with Morris College. Jozenville lit up the scoreboard with 30 against Morris and sophomore center Ben De La Cruz had a double double to lead the Saints to their first road win of the season.
The Saints returned home for a rare two game set with Seton Hill and suffered another disappointing loss in the first game on Jan. 25. In the second game, the Saints came out fighting and jumped out to a 19-point half time lead. The Griffins would begin to cut in to the lead as the second half started and cut it down to four with three minutes left. Flagler continued to battle but a three-pointer by Zarko Kostic gave Seton Hill the lead with under 10 seconds on the clock.
Senior guard Lee Wise brought the ball down the court as the clock ticked closer to the buzzer. “I just didn’t want to turn the ball over,” Wise said. “I didn’t want to have a loss on my hands.”
A pass to Jozenville was knocked out of bounds by Seton Hill with one second on the clock. Seton Hill would bail the Saints out though as Kostic fouled Jozenville on the inbounds pass to send him to the line. Jozenville sealed the victory with the free throws.
“I knew it was over after he hit one,” Wise said. “I knew he was going to hit the second one.”
With five games left before the National Independent Tournament in Ft. Myers, the Saints know that they’re not going to have anything handed to them.
“I think our whole main goal was to get some wins going into the independent tournament,” Borstelmann said. “That’s what we really want to do, just keep it going one game at a time and get some wins.”
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