De'Lazarus Keys (Photo by Linwood Ferguson)
Posted: Jan 09, 2020
TAMPA, Fla.- The #3 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers got out to a solid early lead and never looked back Wednesday night on the road at Hillsborough, leading wire to wire and getting double-doubles from De'Lazarus Keys and Jermaine Marshall in a 95-77 blowout of the Hawks to improve to 18-1 on the year.
The Bucs got off to a good start, racing out to an 11-4 lead and holding that to the midway point of the first half after a three from Terry Roberts made it 22-14. In front of their home crowd Hillsborough hung around though, slicing the FSW cushion to just four moments later ahead of a Buccaneer timeout. The rest of the first half belonged to the Bucs as they went on a 15-3 run out of the timeout, highlighted by fast break dunks from De'Lazarus Keys and Jermaine Marshall and a pair of threes from Hasahnn Reynolds to balloon the lead to 39-23 with 5:50 left in the half. They continued to build on their advantage, eventually stretching their lead to 50-32 as the teams headed to the locker rooms at half.
A pullup three from Jalen Finch and Reynolds' third three of the game quickly bumped the FSW lead up over 20 as the second half began and an old fashioned three point play by Marshall gave them their largest lead of the night at 62-36 with 14:47 to go. The Bucs put it in cruise control from there, never seeing their lead dip below 17 for the rest of the night. Keys set a new career high in scoring with a jumper with 7:25 remaining and both Keys and Marshall secured rebounds in the final minute of action to finished off double-doubles as the Bucs rolled to a 95-77 victory for their 11th straight win.
The Bucs shot an efficient 46% from the field and 44% from downtown on the night while forcing 23 Hillsborough turnovers and turning them into 29 points in the win. Keys scored a career high 16 points and hauled in 10 rebounds for his first FSW double-double while Marshall collected his second straight double-double and fourth on the year with 13 points and 10 boards. Roberts tied Keys for the team lead in scoring with 16 wile Finch and Keon Ellis each chipped in 14.
FSW wins their 11th straight to improve to 18-1 on the year and picks up their second straight win to open their Suncoast Conference schedule to improve to 2-0. Hillsborough drops back to even on the year at 8-8 and is 0-1 in conference action.
The Bucs step away from Suncoast Conference play on Saturday when they return home to take on Victory Rock Prep. The Bucs and Blue Devils will tip at 4 PM in Suncoast Credit Union Arena.