Posted: Nov 01, 2023
FORT MYERS, Fla.- The #8 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers kicked off their 2023-2024 season with a bang Wednesday night in Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers, rolling past the visiting Mont Sports Academy by a score of 89-56 with five different players scoring in double figures.
With opening night nerves undoubtedly playing a factor early on, the Bucs got off to a bit of a slow start before a 9-2 run put them up 13-5 seven minutes into the contest. Mont found some rhythm of their own and trimmed the Bucs lead to just three at the under 10 media timeout but moments later a thunderous dunk from Reis Jones stretched the lead back out to eight at 27-19 with 6:08 to go in the first half. An 8-0 FSW run highlighted by back to back buckets from Jaehshon Thomas padded their lead to 16 with just under four minutes remaining in the half and that is the way the teams would go to the locker room as Karmani Gregory dished one to Yvens Paul for a two handed slam at the first half horn to put the Bucs up 44-28 as the teams went to the locker rooms at the break.
The Bucs continued to play above the rim as the second half began as Jones picked off a past and hammered it home early on to give FSW their first 20 point lead of the night at 51-30 two minutes in. The Bucs went over 4:30 without a point from there as Mont trimmed the FSW lead to just a dozen with 13:00 to go. Back to back threes from Gregory and Jalen Wanger quickly pushed the lead back to 18 and FSW continued to built on their advantage, taking a 75-50 lead on a pair of free throws from Jones with 5:13 left. There was no letting up with the finish line in sight for the Bucs as they scored the final seven points of the game to run away with an 89-56 win to take their 2023-2024 season opener in a blowout.
FSW shot 44% overall on the night, but hit on just 8-32 (25% from distance). The big difference came in the paint where the Bucs outrebounded Mont by 14 including 19 offensive rebounds which led to 17 second chance points. Five different players scored in double figures for the Bucs led by Jones who was 7-8 from the field and put up 18 in his FSW debut while Thomas finished with 16 points, 6 rebounds, and a team best 6 assists in the win.
FSW is now 8-0 all time in season openers.
The Bucs will be back in action on November 10th and 11th in Americus, Georgia when they take part in the South Georgia Tech Classic.