FORT PIERCE, Fla.- The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers became the latest victim to a helter skelter Indian River defense in Fort Pierce, as after the Pioneers forced 64 turnovers in their previous two games, the Bucs gave it away 28 times Wednesday in an 85-75 loss in Southern Conference action.  

 

As expected after a shootout the first time around between the two, the action was hot and heavy early on between the Bucs and the Pioneers as the teams were knotted at 8 four minutes into the action. Indian River pushed ahead with a pair of baskets, but the Bucs answered with eight straight of their own to grab a 16-12 advantage with 13:00 to go in the first. The pace slowed from there as FSW saw an extended scoring drought of nearly three minutes through the middle portion of the period as Indian River erased the Bucs lead and took a five point lead of their own at 26-21. A driving layup from Dezdrick Lindsay with 3:22 left in the half got the Bucs back to within one, but a Pioneer run pushed their lead back to seven before a half court buzzer beater by Jadrian Tracey banked in to make it a 40-36 game in favor of Indian River at the break.  

 

The teams traded baskets through the first six minutes of the second half as the Pioneers stayed at arm's length until a tough ley in in traffic from Jordan Mitchell tied the game at 50 with 14:00 to go. Another bucket from Mitchell moments later gave the Bucs their first lead since the 9:00 mark of the first and they pushed that lead to five at 58-53 on a three point play from Tyson Brown at the rim.  Indian River leveled the score back at 64 with 8:40 to go and the teams traded the lead back and forth until finding themselves back even once again at 71 with 4:55 remaining.  The Pioneers got the next nine points from there, holding a gased Bucs squad without a field goal for over two minutes while taking an 80-71 advantage.  The Bucs cut it to a five point game with 2:21 left, but that was as close as they would get as the Pioneers finished them off 85-75 to send FSW to it's third straight road loss. 

 

FSW shot 44% on the night, but 28 turnovers turned into 25 Indian River points in the defeat. Mitchell scored a career high 21 points in the loss while Lindsay pitched in 14 off the FSW bench. 

 

The Bucs fall to 14-6 overall and 2-3 in Southern Conference play with the loss while Indian River improves to 17-5 overall and 4-1 in conference action. 

 

FSW will try to get back in the win column on Saturday when they host Miami Dade in a 4 PM tip from Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers.