Published On: Thu, Mar 2nd, 2023

PBSC Panthers Fall on the Road

The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers withstood an early barrage from the visiting Palm Beach State Panthers Tuesday night at Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers and put together a huge second half to come away with a blowout 102-70 win, their fifth straight, to improve to 19-8 on the year. 

Neither team could miss early on as it was a 10-10 game just three minutes into the action between the Bucs and the Panthers. The two teams continued to go back and forth as a three point play from Tyson Brown put FSW up momentarily before Palm Beach hit a three to level things back up at 17 with 14:53 to go in the first half. The game remained tied midway through the first when Palm Beach went on their best run of the game, taking a 36-25 lead with 6:36 left in the half. From that point on, it was all FSW.  Jemal Davis flushed one home at the rim to get the Bucs back to within two and then got a block on one end and a lay in on the other end to tie the score back up at 36 with 2:08 to go in the first. Reigning FCSAA Player of the Week Jadrian Tracey finished the half off with a bang for the Bucs, drilling a pair of threes in the final 30 seconds to cap off a 20-2 run for FSW to close the half and give them a 45-38 lead at the end of 20 minutes of action. 

The break didn’t slow Tracey or the Bucs down.  The Bucs sophomore came out and nailed another three early in the second half and another Tracey triple stretched the lead to 15 at 55-40 as FSW continued a 30-4 run.  Palm Beach whittled the Bucs lead back down to eight at 59-51  with 13:32 to go, but a big three from Dezdrick Lindsay pushed it back to an 11 point game and the Panthers never got it back to single digits again. AJ Hopkins nailed a three on the break and Davis split a pair of free throws to make it a 20 point game in favor of the Bucs with 9:22 to go.  Omar Rowe grabbed a rebound and flew the other way for a one handed slam to make it 87-65 FSW late in the contest and a step back three from Jordan Mitchell gave the Bucs 100 in the closing seconds as FSW went on to win it 102-70 for their fifth straight victory.  

The Bucs shot 55% from the field in the win while Palm Beach finished at just 35% following a scalding hot start.  Tracey posted a double-double with 26 points on 9-12 shooting, while hauling in 10 rebounds in 28 minutes of action. Lindsay scored a career high 24 on 10-15 from the field while also distributing 4 assists.  Davis had 14 points and 4 big blocked shots off the Buccaneer bench. 

FSW wins their fifth straight to improve to 19-8 on the year while Palm Beach falls to 14-9.  

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