Posted: Mar 03, 2025
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.- The Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers went toe to toe with the #10 Daytona State Falcons Monday night in their regular season finale in Daytona Beach, but the Conference Champion Falcons were too much for the Bucs in the end, coming away with a 91-83 win to snap the Bucs five game winning streak and send FSW to the postseason with an 18-10 record.
The Bucs defense was locked in early on against the high flying Falcons, holding Daytona to just right points through the first 6:30 of the contest as they got out to a 13-8 lead. Daytona woke up and grabbed the lead, but a tough layin at the tin from Eugene Alvin put FSW back in front 24-23 with 7:12 remaining in the half. The Bucs and Falcons went back and forth until a K'jei Parker three put FSW up by four, 32-28 with 4:43 left in the half. The Bucs wouldn't get another field goal until the first half horn as Daytona wiped away the four point FSW advantage and took a 39-37 lead into the break after an exciting 20 minutes of action.
It was all Bucs big man Chol Machot to start the second half as he scored FSW's first seven points of the period to get them back to within one at 45-44 three minutes in. With the game tied at 51 with 14:26 remaining, the Bucs went cold as Daytona went on a 14-4 run to take their largest lead of the game at 65-55 with 9:55 to go in the contest. The Bucs slowly worked their way back into it on the backs of Machot and Parker and back to back threes from the pair drew the Bucs back even at 68 with 6:13 to go. A Daytona timeout stunted the Bucs momentum and FSW couldn't regain it out of the break as the Falcons retook the lead and the Bucs didn't threaten again as the Falcons went on to take it 91-83 to wrap up the 2025 regular season for both sides.
Machot had a monster night, scoring a career high 29 points on 11 of 14 shooting while Parker put up 20 including hitting four three pointers.
The Bucs see their five game winning streak come to an end at the hands of the Falcons as they finish the regular season 18-10 overall and finish in 3rd place in the Citrus Conference standings with an 11-5 mark. Daytona improves to 26-4 overall and wins the conference for the second straight year with a 14-2 record in league play.
Next up for the Bucs is a trip to the FCSAA Tournament in Niceville where they will play with a ticket to the NJCAA National Tournament on the line. The Bucs will learn their tournament draw Friday with the eight team event starting on Thursday, March 13th in the Raider Arena.
