PENSACOLA, Fla. – Mississippi University for Women men's basketball rolled to its second-straight win in The Sunshine State by defeating Johnson University-Florida, 70-59, at Pensacola Christian College. The victory upped the Owls' record to 2-1, while the Suns set to 1-6 overall.
 
The contest was never really in doubt for The W. The Owls parlayed a five-point halftime cushion (38-33) into the easy "W" by outscoring JU by 14 in the second half.
 
MUW shot a blistering 53 percent from the field (29-55) against the Suns, including 57 percent (8-14) from beyond the arc. Freshman Adin Johnson (Ecru, Miss.) came off the bench to lead the way by hitting 5-of-7 from the field and 3-of-5 from three-point range, good for a game-leading 14 points.
 
While Johnson was the lone Owl in double-digit scoring, a balanced attack saw a total of 11 players score in the game, six of which had seven or more points. In addition to Johnson, veterans Brye Hopkins (Valencia, Spain), Dariun Doss (Reform, Ala.), and Andrew Shepherd (Ft. Myers, Fla.) each tallied eight points. Sophomore Tyson Smithey (New Albany, Miss.) and newcomer Tarik Islamovic (Tuzia, Bosnia & Herzegovina) each chipped in seven points.
 
Hopkins had a game high eight rebounds, with Smithey hauling in five caroms. Smithey dished off five assists to top all players. Doss' four steals led the larceny stats.
 
"Our mindset coming down here this weekend was to go 1-0 twice," Owls' Head Coach Dean Burrows explained. "From last Wednesday to yesterday and on into this afternoon, we wanted to see as many different styles of play and personnel as possible in the non-conference slate to prepare us for conference play and a potential tourney."

"We missed too many free throws these past few days and still are turning it over far more than I would ever want," Burrows continued" "But, we are getting better defensively and doing our job on the glass. I thought that Brye (Hopkins) and Cam Smith) did a great job all weekend and are continuing to learn to play off of one another. Tyson (Smithey) had a good bounce back game today and Dariun (Doss) provided us energy all weekend long, especially on the defensive end and taking on the responsibility of trying to take the opposition's best offensive threat out of the equation as much as possible."
 
The W will look to extend its win skein next Tuesday (Nov. 21) at home versus Huntingdon College. Tipoff at Pohl Gym is slated for 5 p.m.