FORT PIERCE, Fla.- For the first 15 minutes of Florida SouthWestern's Southern Conference matchup with the #16

Indian River Pioneers on Wednesday in Fort Pierce, the Bucs controlled the pace, but a relentless Pioneers group crushed FSW on the glass from that point on with 24 second chance points to down the Bucs 71-65 and take control of the race for the conference crown with five games to go. 

 

The Bucs got off to a hot start as a 9-0 run early on capped by an old fashioned three point play from Kiana Wilson had FSW on top 9-4 at the midway point of the first.  Indian River answered with five straight of their own to tie things up and the teams went back and forth until late buckets from Aaliyah Williams and Blessing King put FSW up four at the end of one 18-14. 

 

FSW held the four point lead to the middle of the second period when a 6-1 run extended their lead to nine at 30-21 with 3:50 left in the half. A nifty three point play in traffic from Macarena Retamales moments later put the Bucs up 12 and gave FSW all the momentum with 2:55 remaining until the break. The Bucs couldn't hold big mo however as a pair of second chance buckets and a deep three from the Pioneers sliced the FSW lead all the way down to just four at 36-32 as the teams went to the locker rooms at half.  

 

The first six minutes of the second half couldn't have went much worse for the Bucs as Indian River finished off erasing FSW's lead before stretching their run to 30-7 to turn a 12 point Buccaneer lead with 3:00 left in the second quarter to an 11 point Pioneer lead with 3:00 left in the third.  Federica Lagana came off the FSW bench and provided a bit of a spark and Natalia Tondi got a runner to fall in the final minute of the quarter to get the Bucs back to within six at the end of three at 58-52.  

 

Just as the Bucs started getting back into it, a quick 4-0 jaunt by the Pioneers to start the fourth had Indian River's lead back to double figures at 62-52 with 8:00 to go. FSW got it back to a six point game with 2:00 to go,  and had it to within five in the final minute of the contest, but they were never able to cut it to less than that as Indian River finished them off 71-65 to take a stranglehold on their first Southern Conference race since the Bucs entered the league three years ago. 

 

The Bucs outshot Indian River 40% to 31% in the game, but FSW managed to connect on just 2 of 16 three point attempts and the Pioneers collected 22 offensive rebounds and turned them into 24 points which was the different in the loss for the Bucs.  Wilson led three Bucs in double figures with 14 while King had a team high 13 rebounds in the defeat.  

 

FSW falls to 13-7 overall and 2-2 in Southern Conference play with the loss while Indian River improves to 20-3 overall and a perfect 4-0 in conference action.  

 

The Bucs will look to get back on track on Saturday when they return home to take on Miami Dade in a 2 PM start from Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers.