#3 Pioneers Win In Overtime

Fort Pierce, Florida – Jacob Tracey hit one of two free-throws with seven seconds left in overtime to give the #3 ranked team in the nation, Indian River State College (IRSC), the victory over State College of Florida Manatee/Sarasota,84-83.

The Pioneers found themselves down 42-36 at the half, but quickly tied the score at 44 with just two minutes off the clock in the second half. Jonathan Cisse hit a deep three-point basket to push IRSC's lead to 61-55 with 9:42 remaining in the second half.  Manatee went on their own 6-0 run and tied the score at 65.  The game saw several lead changes in the last six minutes before the Pioneers got a defensive stop and had one last opportunity to win the game in regulation. A.J. Cajuste's shot rimmed out and the game headed to overtime. 

The back-and-forth action continued with Manatee holding the lead 83-81 with just over a minute to play.  Tracey scored on a drive to the basket tying the score at 83. Bendji Pierre had a great defensive stop and rebound allowing IRSC an opportunity to win the game.  The Pioneers went for the last shot and Cajuste hit Tracey cutting to the basket who was fouled on the shot.  Tracey made the first free-throw but missed the second attempt which was knocked out of bounds leaving 5.2 seconds on the clock.  Manatee had one more shot attempt which caromed of the rim giving the Pioneers their 20^th win of the season, 84-83.

Leading scorers for IRSC were Cajuste with 28 points followed by Cisse with 21 and Tracey tossed in 11.  Pierre did an outstanding job on the rebounding side of things pulling in 16. 

The Pioneers will travel to Fort Meyer, Florida on Saturday January 29^th to take on Florida Southwestern College for a 2 p.m. start.   It will be a match-up of two nationally ranked teams with IRSC in the 3^rd spot in the latest National Junior College Athletic Association's Poll and Florida Southwestern coming in at number 12.