FORT MYERS, Fla.- For 20 minutes, the Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers went toe to toe with the #4 Daytona State Falcons Saturday afternoon at Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers, but in the end, the Falcons, winners of 17 in a row, were just too much for the Purple and Aqua, pulling away early in the second half and never looking back to hand the Bucs an 80-61 defeat to snap a five game Buccaneer win streak.

 

The game was played at the Bucs preferred pace early on as FSW frustrated the Nation's top offense, holding them to just nine points in the first seven minutes of the contest to get out to an early 13-9 lead.  Ahmed Souhmahoro drove baseline and threw down a monstrous slam in traffic to put FSW up five, 19-14 with 8:15 remaining in the half, but just when it looked like the Bucs had the momentum, they went ice cold, managing just two points over the next six minutes as Daytona went on a 15-2 run to erase the FSW lead and take an eight point lead of their own at 29-21. The Bucs regained their footing and a late three from K'jei Parker got FSW back to within six before the half, but after 20 minutes of action it was the Falcons in front 33-27. 

 

The Bucs tried to push the reset button at the half, but it didn't work as Daytona scored 8 of the first 10 out of the break to open up their lead to a dozen at 41-29 with 15:49 to go. Another extended stretch without a basket for the Bucs, this one nearly six minutes through the middle portion of the half turned a close game into a lopsided one as Daytona blew their lead open to 61-35 with under nine minutes remaining. The Bucs continued to fight though, cutting a 26 point deficit down to 17 with 5:41 to go, but that's as close as they would get as Daytona went on to win it 80-61 to bring the Bucs five game winning streak to an end. 

 

FSW held Daytona 20 points under their season average in scoring, but shot just 39% from the field and turned it over 19 times in the loss. Souhmahoro scored a season high 22 after missing the past two games to injury while Parker finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds for FSW. 

 

The Bucs fall to 12-7 overall and 5-2 in Citrus Conference play with the loss while Daytona State wins their 18^th straight game to improve to 20-2 overall while remaining unbeaten in eight conference matchups this season. 

 

The Bucs will look to get back on track in another big game on Wednesday when they travel to Melbourne to take on #24 Eastern Florida in a battle for second place in the league standings.