As he looked at the final statistics, Josh Gomes shook his head in disbelief.

“I don’t remember taking 23 shots or getting to the free throw line nine times,” Gomes said. “I didn’t have a clue. I couldn’t even tell.”

What Gomes didn’t believe was how many points he scored in Saturday’s game against Tennessee-Martin.

Gomes had 23 points in the first half. When the final buzzer sounded, Gomes was proud to say he contributed 40 points in a winning effort.

“I haven’t been playing well the past four or five games.” Gomes said. “I was just thinking yesterday that I needed a game like this.”

Gomes went 15-23 from the field and went eight of nine from the free throw line. His hot shooting is something head coach Rick Samuels has expected from Gomes for quite some time. Samuels said he hopes Gomes can continue to perform the way he did Saturday night.

“Being the go-to-guy wears on him mentally and physically,” Samuels said. “Hopefully he can continue to have that kind of energy throughout the season.

“We have to keep Gomes’ bio rhythms up,” Samuels said. “They were as high as they’ve ever been since he’s been a Panther.”

Gomes prepared extra hard for Saturday’s game and his performance showed just how hard he worked.

“I took so many shots before the game,” Gomes said. “I shot around before pregame warm ups at the rec center during the girls game.”

Gomes said it was a great feeling to have all those extra shots and all the extra work pay off for him.

The sophomore from Indianapolis, Ind. gave former Panther star, Henry Domercant some credit for his outstanding performance. He said Domercant used to shoot a lot before games and Gomes adopted Domercant’s pregame routine, which helped him excel Saturday night.

“I learned a lot from Henry,” Gomes said.

The game was tied with eight seconds left and Gomes missed a premature, potential game-winning shot. Samuels said he wanted Gomes to take the shot as time expired, instead, the Skyhawks got the ball with a chance to win the game. The miscue was excused when the Panthers stole the ball and sent the game into overtime.

In the overtime period, Gomes showed his missed shot at the end of regulation didn’t rattle him. He got the ball off the tip, drove the lane with authority and took the first shot.

“When you got a guy playing like that, you’re going to go to him,” senior center Jesse Mackinson said.

Samuels said Gomes moved as well as he has all season without the ball to get himself good looks at the basket and his teammates found him with some good passes.

“When he moves like that, he’s really hard to guard,” Samuels said.

After the best game of his college career Gomes said he is confident he can have more games like it in the future.

“I just have to clear my mind and things will go well for me,” Gomes said. “It felt good to finally play a game like that.”