BRADENTON, Fla.- The #15 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers shook off a slow start for a hard fought 70-61 road win at State College of Florida Wednesday night to remain unbeaten in Southern Conference play. 

 

With points hard to come by, the Bucs rode their defense early on, keeping State College of Florida off the scoreboard for the first four minutes of the contest to jump out to a 5-0 lead.  The Manatees found their groove though, scoring the next eight points and holding the Bucs without a single point for nearly four minutes to take an 8-5 lead of their own. A three from Kaiyem Cleary gave the Bucs the lead back moments later and the two went back and forth to find themselves in a stalemate at 18-18 with 4:45 to go in the half. A putback from Jonathan Dos Anjos gave the Bucs the lead once again and they didn't relinquish it again in the first half as a late floater from Jordan Mitchell extended their lead to 30-25 as the teams went to the locker rooms at the break.  

 

The Bucs scored the first three points out of the break to extend their lead to eight and kept the Manatees at arm's length until a pair of technicals whistled on FSW allowed SCF to trim the lead in half with four free throws with 13:00 to go.  The Bucs lead eventually got down to just two with 6:00 left before they decided they had had enough of the drama.  An offensive rebound and putback from Bryant Selebangue started a 9-0 run for the Purple and Aqua, pushing their lead from two to 11 in just 2:24.  The Manatees never threatened again as the Bucs hit five of six from the free throw line in the closing moments to salt away a 70-61 win to the dismay of the home crowd.  

 

The Bucs shot 47% from the field in the win despite struggling from beyond the arc where they were just 2-12 on the night.  Dos Anjos scored a game high 20 on 7-11 shooting in the victory while Selebangue was a monster on the inside once again, posting his eighth straight double-double with 14 points, a program record 17 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots.  

 

The win is the 11th straight for the Bucs who improve to 16-2 overall and 3-0 in Southern Conference play with the victory while State College of Florida loses their fifth straight to fall to 11-10 overall and 0-3 in league play. 

 

FSW will get a well needed rest after three games in five days, getting six days off before taking the court again next Wednesday on the road at Hillsborough.