OCALA, FLA.- The #1 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers led for 39 minutes and 56 seconds of Friday's FCSAA/Region VIII Semifinal matchup with #8 Northwest Florida State, but couldn't seal the deal late as the Raiders erased a 19 point second half FSW lead to stun the Bucs 69-68.
Things couldn't have started much better for the Bucs as Destin Barnes came out of the gates firing, scoring FSW's first 11 points to give them an 11-3 lead 4:30 in. They stretched the lead to 16-3 before Northwest went on a run of their own to trim the lead to 23-18 midway through the first period. Jalen Finch found Maddox Daniels in the corner for three to push the Bucs lead back to double digits late in the half and FSW took an 11 point lead into the break at half at 43-32.
The Bucs shot 47% overall in the first half and connected on 7 of 13 from deep, good for 54%. On the other side, they held the Raiders to just 32% shooting on nine first half field goals. Barnes led the way with 13 in the half for FSW while Charles Manning Jr. added 10 and Maddox Daniels 10.
FSW didn't let the half slow them down as they came out and immediately cushioned their lead as Manning Jr. finished an and one to make it a 14 point game and later on Mason Daniels buried a three to beat the shot clock to put them up 57-40 with 11 minutes to go. From that point on, FSW went ice cold. The Bucs went over four minutes without a bucket as Northwest trimmed their lead down from 17 to 10 with three minutes to go. After a Northwest bucket cut the lead to eight, Maddox Daniels got loose on a run out for a two handed slam to give the Bucs a 68-58 lead with 1:33 remaining. That's when the unthinkable happened. A quick bucket by the Raiders followed by an FSW turnover and ensuing three by Northwest Florida sliced the lead in half with under a minute to go. A missed free throw and a turnover led to two more possessions for the Raiders, they scored on them both to make it a one point game at 68-67 with 24.8 seconds remaining. FSW ran 11 seconds off the clock before being fouled, but they missed another front end of a one and one to give the Raiders the ball with 13.9 seconds left. Northwest drove to the basket and scored with less than four seconds remaining and a desperation shot at the buzzer was knocked away as a stunned FSW group looked up in disbelief at the scoreboard in a 69-68 defeat.
The Bucs finished with as many turnovers as field goals in the second half with nine, managing just nine points total over the final 11 minutes of the contest. Manning Jr. led FSW with 17 points, Maddox Daniels had 14, and Barnes 13, all in the first half.
FSW drops to 29-2 on the year, with both losses coming to the Raiders, and will have to wait until Monday to see if they will be headed to the NJCAA National Tournament as an at large. Northwest Florida State improves to 26-4 and advances to the Region VIII Finals where they will take on the winner of the Eastern Florida State/Chipola semifinal.