DAYTONA BEACH -- Father Lopez's boys basketball team didn't need any extra incentive Monday night against Mainland.
Playing in the finale of the Martin Luther King Jr. Classic at Vince Carter Athletic Complex, the Green Wave were playing for longtime coach Eddie Miller's 300th career victory -- on his 42nd birthday.
Beating tradition-rich and Class 6A Mainland was a big enough task, so Miller didn't tell his players about the potential milestone before Class 2A Father Lopez came away with a 57-43 victory.
"To have the opportunity to coach this long is something I've always wanted. I love the game and to do it this long at a great school with great kids (is special)," a smiling Miller said. "I was thinking about it last night that there's a lot of highs and lows and family pays a price, so that's definitely the low of all of this. But to have the opportunity to coach great kids and teach them a little bit about life, too, is awesome."
Mainland was without Division I football recruit Cortez Davis, who visited Clemson this past weekend, and the Buccaneers (10-7) struggled offensively while the Green Wave rolled.
Father Lopez's Matt Panaggio scored a game-high 19 points, 11 of his points coming at the free-throw line, and grabbed 14 rebounds. Reed Ridder, the son of ERAU coach Steve Ridder, chipped in 18 points on 8 of 14 shooting to go with his six assists for the Green Wave.
"They held (the milestone) from us and it's his birthday today. He didn't want to tell us before because they didn't want to put more pressure on us I guess. We had no idea. He just told us after the game," Ridder said. "We knew coming in that we were the underdogs and we just wanted to come out and show that we've gotten a lot better since the beginning of the year. We're just happy to finally beat a big team."
Miller entered the season with a record of 288-154. In his 16th season he landed that 300th victory, just 17 games into the season. His career record now stands at 300-159.
Father Lopez's (12-5) hit 20 of 43 shots from the floor and were 12 of 15 from the foul line.
Quinton Powell led the Bucs with 15 points, but Mainland struggled with its shooting, hitting just 19 of 51 shots and 5 of 13 from the foul line.
"Every day is a learning experience. We have had a few games without (Davis) where we won," Mainland coach Landis McCoy said. "We've got a lot of our younger guys up so we were looking for someone to give us a spark off the bench. Our free throws were killing us big time and if the free throws didn't hurt us the turnovers did."
Lopez led 26-20 at the intermission and broke the game open in the third period, taking a 42-28 margin into the final quarter of play.