Posted: Jan 27, 2022
TAMPA, Fla.- For the first 30 minutes of the #12 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers' game against the Hillsborough Hawks Wednesday night on the road in Tampa, nothing could go right for the Bucs and everything went right for the Hawks, to the tune of a 13 point lead for Hillsborough with 10:00 to play in the game. That's when a light switch flipped for the Bucs and they slowly made their comeback before a three pointer with under a second remaining in regulation broke an 81-81 tie. The ensuing plays can only be described as madness, allowing the Hawks to tie the game, but FSW regained its composure and the Bucs went on to win it 93-90 in overtime to improve to 17-2 on the season.
It was a physical game early on with bodies hitting the floor on both sides without whistles being blown to stop play. The Hawks took advantage of the style to muddy the waters a bit on the Bucs side of the floor while they connected on a pair of threes from the outside to get out to a 14-8 lead five minutes in. An FSW turnover and layup on the other end allowed Hillsborough to up their lead to 10 and with seemingly a lid on the Buccaneer basket, the Hawks took their largest lead of the game at 39-25 with just over 2:00 remaining in the period. Late in the half the Bucs jumped on the back of reigning FCSAA Player of the Week Bryant Selebangue who grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds and stuck them back in to trim the Hawks lead to just nine at 43-34 after 20 minutes of action.
Jonathan Dos Anjos scored the first four points out of the break for FSW and drew them back to within just five at 43-38 early in the second. That was short lived though as Hillsborough quickly pushed their lead back to double digits and then all the way to 14 at 58-45 with 13:30 to go. The Bucs looked dead in the water, but that's when their sophomore leaders took over. Selebangue secured his ninth straight double-double midway through the period with his 10th rebound of the night and Marcus Niblack drove to the basket and scored on back to back trips to get the Bucs back to within just four in the blink of an eye at 60-56. A pair of free throws from Kaiyem Cleary moments later leveled the score at 64 with 5:20 to go and FSW took their first lead since the opening seconds of the game when Cleary threw down a two handed slam in traffic to make it 68-66 FSW. Back and forth the two teams went down the stretch with Selebangue and Niblack leading the way for FSW and the region's leading scorer Japhet Medor doing the work for the Hawks. The teams were deadlocked at 76 with 46 seconds left and traded hoops to a 78-78 stalemate with 21 seconds left and the ball in the Bucs hands. That's when a storybook ending for the Bucs was interrupted by a rather bizarre sequence as Jonathan Dos Anjos hit a three with less than one second remaining on the clock to give the Bucs an 81-78 lead, but thinking the game was over, the FSW bench flowed onto the floor, resulting in a technical foul and two free throws allowing the Hawks to get back to within one at 81-80 with 0.4 left on the clock. Needing a miracle, the Hawks got one as a sneaky play on the inbounds attempt resulted in an FSW foul, giving Hillsborough two tries at the charity stripe to improbably ice the game. The first freebie missed the mark, but the second connected, tying the game at 81 and sending the game to overtime.
There was very little scoring early in the extra period as each team managed just two baskets through the first three minutes to keep the game tied at 85. A big deal from Niblack and feed ahead to Cleary with just under two minutes left on the clock put the Bucs ahead by two and they never relinquished the lead again. Cleary went 4-4 from the free throw line in the final 23 seconds and the Bucs came up with a pair of big stops on the defensive end to salt away a 93-90 victory to remain unbeaten in conference play on the year.
There were a handful of standout stat lines on the final box score for both sides as Selebangue finished off his ninth straight double-double with a monster second half on the inside, going for 23 points and a program single game record 18 rebounds including 10 on the offensive end while Niblack scored 17 second half points to finish with 22, and Dos Anjos put together a 20 point, 11 rebound night in the win. In the losing effort, Medor went for 40 points, 9 assists, and 8 steals in a near triple-double for the Hawks.
The Bucs win their 12th straight to improve to 17-2 overall and 4-0 in Southern Conference play on the season. Hillsborough drops their third straight to fall to 8-11 overall and 2-4 in league action.
The win for the Bucs sets up a huge showdown Saturday afternoon in Suncoast Credit Union Arena as #12 FSW will host #3 Indian River in a matchup of the last two undefeated teams in Southern Conference play. Tip off for the Top 15 matchup is set for 2:00.