MELBOURNE, Fla.- In a wild game of ups and downs, the #15 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers outlasted the #19 Eastern Florida State Titans 65-58 in a huge Citrus Conference matchup Wednesday night at Titan Field House in Melbourne. 

 

In a matchup of the top two teams in the Citrus Conference standings it was the second place Titans of Eastern Florida that got off to the better start on Wednesday, jumping out to an early 6-2 lead on the Bucs. A jumper from Sarah Owona got the Bucs back on track and they went on to score the next 12 points in the game to take a 14-6 lead before trading points to a 16-8 FSW lead at the end of one quarter of action. 

 

The Bucs remained up eight midway through the second when they got a three from Asiana Britt and a bucket on the inside from Ivy Brown to take their largest lead of the game at 29-16 with 3:30 remaining in the half. The Bucs went cold from there as Eastern scored the final eight points of the half to trim their lead down to just five at 29-24 after 20 minutes of action. 

 

FSW's drought continued into the second half as they went scoreless through the first three minutes of the third quarter while the Titans put up eight points to completely erase the Bucs lead and take their first lead since early in the game at 32-29. Eastern went up by as many as six before the Bucs got the final four points of the third to make it a 42-40 game in favor of the Titans as the teams went to the fourth. 

 

Georgi Buzzetti connected on a 10 foot jumper to tie the game at 42 early in the fourth and Samantha Serrano drilled a three on the Bucs next possession to put FSW back in front 45-42. With momentum on their side the Bucs continued to push, opening up a 10 point lead at 56-46 with 5:30 to go in regulation. Just when it looked like the Bucs were going to run away with it, Eastern Florida stormed back, trimming the FSW lead all the way down to one at 59-58 with under a minute to go. Britt spun to the basket and laid one in to put FSW up three and the Bucs got a stop on their next possession and then finished the game at the free throw line, going on to win 65-58. 

 

Asiana Britt led the Bucs with 20 points in the win while Samantha Serrano put up 18 including 11 in the fourth and deciding quarter. 

 

FSW wins their third straight to improve to 18-4 overall and 12-1 in Citrus Conference action while sweeping the season series with Eastern Florida and taking a two game lead on the Titans atop the league standings. Eastern falls to 18-6 overall and 10-3 in league play where they will now need a lot of help if they are to repeat as Conference Champions, down two games plus the tiebreaker with just five games left to go. 

 

The Bucs are back in action next Wednesday when they host Hillsborough in a 5 PM tip from Suncoast Arena in Fort Myers.