February 27, 2021
High Flying Bucs Lead Wire to Wire Against Panthers
The #13 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers put on a show for their home crowd Saturday afternoon in Suncoast Credit Union Arena, topping the 90 point mark for the seventh straight game and leading wire to wire in a 98-64 win over the visiting Palm Beach State Panthers in Southern Conference action.
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #13 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers put on a show for their home crowd Saturday afternoon in Suncoast Credit Union Arena, topping the 90 point mark for the seventh straight game and leading wire to wire in a 98-64 win over the visiting Palm Beach State Panthers in Southern Conference action.
Terry Roberts hit a three on the Bucs first possession of the afternoon and it was off to the races for the Purple and Aqua. The Bucs pushed out to a 7-2 lead and extended that to 12-4 on a three from Jonathan Dos Anjos. Palm Beach made a run to cut the Bucs lead to three midway through the half, but a 7-1 FSW run after that, highlighted by a thunderous dunk from Kario Oquendo quickly cushioned the Bucs lead back to nine at 32-23 with 8:58 to go in the period. It remained a nine point game later on when another run for the Bucs, this time a 7-0 dash pushed FSW out to a 44-28 lead with 2:16 left in the half. The Bucs finished the half with an exclamation point when Kario Oquendo found Modibo Sanogo for a two handed alley oop slam to put FSW up 49-31 at the break.
The Bucs began the second half just as they ended the first except this time it was Roberts finding Kaiyem Cleary soaring through the air for a highlight reel dunk to put them up 20. The Bucs continued to pour it on as Roberts connected from downtown with 15:07 to go to put FSW up 63-37 and a jumped from Rhyjon Blackwell moments later gave the Bucs their first 30 point lead of the game at 77-46. The Bucs went to their bench, but there wasn't much change in the results. CJ Jackson scored on a drive to the tin and Kahari Rogers drained a three to make it 91-57 FSW with 3:00 remaining. FSW took their largest lead of the game at 38 after five straight points from Cameron Stitt before finishing off a 98-64 victory at the final buzzer.
FSW shot 52% from the floor in the game and connected on 40% from downtown and 80% from the free throw line. Roberts led FSW with 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting and was equally as impressive on the defensive end, ripping off a single game school record seven steals in the contest. Jaden Campbell had 15 and Oquendo had 14 while Stitt scored a career high nine off the FSW bench in the win.
The Bucs win their seventh straight to improve to 10-1 overall and 5-0 in Southern Conference play with the victory while Palm Beach falls to 2-12 and 0-6 in league action.
The Bucs will jump back out of conference play real quick on Tuesday as they host 212 Academy in a 7:30 PM tip from Suncoast Credit Union Arena before going on the road to Fort Pierce to take on Indian River on Saturday in league play.