ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Palm Beach Atlantic men's basketball never was able to grab a lead on Saturday afternoon, falling to Eckerd 89-66. The Sailfish outscored the Tritons in the second half but a big deficit in the first half was too much to overcome.

Eckerd (9-1, 5-1 SSC) opened the game on a 24-7 run as the Sailfish (5-6, 2-3 SSC) were never able to recover. PBA was able to outscore the Tritons 34-32 in the second half but after trailing 57-32 at halftime the comeback came up short.

Jules Jasmin scored nine of his team-high 13 points in the second half as the freshman also led the team with seven rebounds. Jasmin finished 5-of-7 from the floor but PBA shot just 39.6 percent as a team in the game. The 'Fish also struggled from long range, making just 4-of-19 from beyond the arc.

The Tritons finished the game shooting 50.7 percent overall but shot over 58 percent in the first half. They also made all six of their 3's in the opening 20 minutes. PBA did a lot of their damage at the free throw line on the night, making 24-of-31. Grant Gullett scored half of his 12 points at the charity stripe. Bakari Warthen also scored half of his points on the night at the free throw line as the junior finished with 10 points.  

The Sailfish will take on Southern Wesleyan on Monday at 5 p.m. in their first game of the Emmanuel Winter Classic.