#22 IRSC Men Win On The Road At #15 Florida Southwestern

Fort Meyers, Florida – In a matchup of two national ranked teams, the Indian River State College (IRSC) Men's Basketball Team came away with a huge Southern Conference road win by defeating Florida Southwestern 98-95.  This was the third meeting between the two teams with each team winning on their home court; Florida Southwestern won the first match up 94-87 and IRSC won the second in overtime 87-83.

Florida Southwestern took an early 5-0 lead and increased the lead to 11-3 with 16:31 on the clock.  IRSC had trouble finding the basket and were down 29-20 halfway through the first half.  IRSC continued to battle when Tanahj Pettway and Linton Brown picked up the scoring and narrowed the gap, 44-41 at the half.  Pettway and Brown both scored double figures in the first half with 12 and 11 points respectfully.

The second half saw more of the same up tempo play from both teams.  Brown connected on a deep three-point basket with 16 minutes remaining giving IRSC their first lead, 56-54.  The game had several lead changes until the Pioneers went on a 10-0 run capped off by an A.J Cajuste three-point basket, increased the margin to 83-73 with just over six minutes in left in the contest.  Florida Southwestern cut the advantage to two 92-90 and had a chance to tie the score with just over a minute to play.  IRSC came up with a big stop and Antrell Charlton converted two free-throws to increase the lead to four, 94-90.   Florida Southwestern pulled to within three points 98-95 with 3.4 seconds remaining. They had one more chance for the tie, when the Pioneers bobbled the inbounds pass, but their three-point shot missed the mark as time ran out. 

The big difference for the game was the Pioneers three-point shooting in the second half as they went 8-10 compared to 4-15 in the first half.  Scoring double figures for IRSC were Brown 26, Pettway 16, Jacob Jackson and Cajuste both with 15 points.  The win moved IRSC's record to 15-2 with one regular season game left on the schedule.  They will take on Miami Dade College on Monday March, 21^st at 7:30 pm at the IRSC Massey Campus.