Pioneers Capture 17th Win

Fort Pierce, Florida – It was a high scoring affair Wednesday night in the Southern Conference between The Indian River State College (IRSC) Men's Basketball Team and Miami Dade College. With both teams scoring over the century mark, IRSC's 7th 100-point game of the season, the Pioneers came out on top 107-100 for their 17th win of the season.

The game was an up and down contest with IRSC holding a slight lead 33-25 with 6:24 remaining after Kimani Binder knocked down a 3-point shot. Kahleel Ellis-Garcia followed up with a 3-point basket of his own increasing the advantage to 12 points, 45-33. Miami Dade took advantage of cold shooting streak and a couple of costly turnovers to cut the lead at the half to one point, 51-50.

Miami Dade kept the game close in the early minutes of the second half, but Jai Clark got the offense started with a baseline 3-pointer, 58-55. The pace of the game continued with Marc Syles capitalizing on a nice pass from Garcia-Ellis as he slammed home two points, giving IRSC a 90-82 lead with 5:53 remaining in the game. Miami Dade was never able to cut the lead to less than 7 points giving the Pioneers the 107-100 victory.

"We did a nice job of handling Dade's pressure and finding the open man," stated IRSC Head Coach Charlie Wilson. The Pioneers had 5 players scoring in double figures with Binder leading the way with 36 points. Binder is the leading scoring in Region 8 with 23.6 points per game and is currently ranked 9th in the nation in scoring. Clark contributed 20 points on 6-12 shooting from behind the 3-point arc. Clark has made 102 3-point baskets this season and leads the nation in that category. DeJuan Lockett scored 19 points and pulled in ten rebounds, Micah Johnson added 13, and Ellis-Garcia tossed in 10 points and led the team in rebounding with 11.

The win raised the Pioneers record to 17-4 and 3-0 in the Southern Conference. IRSC will travel to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Sunday, January 27th to take on Broward College for a 5 p.m. start.