WINTER HAVEN, Fla.- The #20 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers overcame a rough second half stretch against Polk State Wednesday night to send the game to overtime where they outscored the Eagles 11-4 for their sixth straight win to close the first half of their 2021-2022 schedule. 

 

The Bucs got off to a dreadfully slow start, falling behind 9-2 to begin the game and watching their deficit balloon to 17-4 six minutes into the contest. The Bucs defense locked in from there, holding Polk to just two points over the next 10 minutes as they went on an 18-2 run to erase the Eagles lead and take a 22-19 lead of their own with 4:17 to go in the half. Polk evened the score back up at 22 moments later, but the Bucs scored the final eight points of the half, highlighted by back to back threes from Phillip Smith to give FSW a 30-22 lead after 20 minutes of action.  

 

It looked like the Bucs were going to put the game away early in the second half as they pushed their lead all the way to 14 at 39-25 with 16:27 to go.  But things went South and went South in a hurry for the Purple and Aqua as back to back threes for the Eagles made it a single digit game in the blink of an eye and in the span of five minutes, the Bucs' lead was gone and the game was tied up at 44 with 11:05 remaining in regulation. It didn't stop there though as Polk continued their run, taking a 10 point lead at 54-44 as they finished off a 29-5 run through the middle portion of the second half.  The back and forth continued, this time the Bucs going on a run of their own as they drew back to within striking distance before six straight points from Bryant Selebangue leveled the game at 57 with 3:18 to go.  Points were hard to come by in the final three minutes with both teams managing a lone bucket, sending the game to overtime knotted at 59. 

 

It continued to be a defensive struggle early in the extra period with Polk leading by two at 63-61 with 3:00 to go.  From there it was all FSW, literally. A drive and score from Marcus Niblack tied the score and started a 9-0 run for the Bucs to close the extra frame as FSW went on to win the contest 70-63 for their sixth consecutive victory. 

 

Both teams struggled shooting the ball in the contest as FSW and Polk both shot right at 35% with the difference coming from beyond the arc where the Bucs hit 32% and the Eagles just 19%.  Selebangue dialed up his seventh double-double in the past eight ballgames with 13 points and 12 rebounds while Jonathan Dos Anjos finished with a team high 14 points to go along with 7 rebounds in the win. 

 

The Bucs improve to 11-2 on the year with the victory while Polk falls to 8-5.  

 

FSW will now take a couple of well earned weeks off for the Holiday break before returning to the court on December 29-30 when they host their New Years Classic, taking on Illinois Central and ASA Miami to close out 2021.