“It feels really good,” said head coach Tom Parks. “I think when you’re in a new conference and there’s no new coaching changes during your time, even though I’ve been a head coach for three seasons and as an assistant coach for Eastern Florida State, you get used to teams from the old conference such as St. Pete, Polk and Hillsborough, so you’re a little bit more prepared without a ton of effort just because you’ve been there before and Miami Dade is a team that you can’t prepare for because it’s very hard to immulate within your practices on what they do and so we tried to focus on a lot of principles that they do well in like pace offensive rebounding, but we’re not them so it’s very difficult to prepare.”
“I think the fact that we got a win is incredible, even if it was ugly where we had multiple times where we have it away, but finding a way to win with a little bit of luck, I will take it because I thought we did everything we could to prepare for this game and I thought the last three days of practice were really good and I thought our guys were reluctant. Hopefully the next time we play MDC, it’s going to be one of those things where we been there and know what they’re going to do since we’re used to it and we won’t have as many mistakes, but right now, I’m glad to get the win and I’m happy for the guys to start off 1-0 in conference.”
“It feels good to get a win like this, especially against a team like Miami Dade,” said sophomore Marshall Kearing. “We played good, but we could have done better. Obviously, the late shot that Kwo made helped us, but we’re happy to take the win.”
The Manatees started struggling in the first half even with a few lead changes, but were still able to cut the deficit to one point with the score 36-35 MDC.
Strong rebounding by Kearing and Agwa and big assists from freshman James “Pop” Weathers helped the Manatees take the lead in the second half until the Sharks started to come back. With 22 seconds left to the end of the second half, the Sharks took advantage of a crucial foul shot situation and went up by one. With 12 seconds left on the clock, sophomore Jordan Clark was double teamed and made a risky pass to Agwa. As the clock ticked to zero, the native of Calgary, Alberta, Canada released a fadeaway 3-point buzzer beater that helped the Manatees secure the victory and their first conference win of the season.
“It was a lot of excitement for this weekend,” said Agwa on shooting the game-winning shot. “I was in a shooting slump all season and I felt pretty good after my second three-pointer made.”
“Buzzer beaters are weird for coaches,” said Parks. “Yet when you’re on the winning end of the buzzer beater, especially in a time like this with so much unknown still with the pandemic, it’s like our team got to have that opportunity to win at the buzzer and celebrate to get our fourth win of the year. Nevertheless I’m excited, I could sit and be negative where I talk about all the mistakes we made, but I didn’t.”
Kearing would lead the way for the Manatees as he finished with a double-double of 24 points (12-for-13 FG) and 11 rebounds to go along with two assists, three blocks and four steals.
“My coaches always want me to crash the boards and I was trying to do that offensively and defensively,” sad Kearing on his double-double. “Defensively, they (Miami Dade) weren’t really blocking me out on the offensive end, so it was easy for me to get rebounds and just being aggressive offensively with scoring and getting the boards.”
“The thing about Marshall is he is playing a lot of minutes right now,” said Parks on Kearing. “It’s really hard for him to be consistent with his effort when he’s playing 30 plus minutes and to be honest, for as far as he played, he could play a lot better, but I think a lot of it is he almost feels like he has to conserve energy to be able to withstand the minutes he's playing. I’m excited for Marshall getting a double-double while getting some big loose ball plays and rebounds down the stretch.”
Agwa would follow with his first collegiate double-double as he finished with 17 points (6-for-10 FG, 1-for-2 3PT, 2-for-3 FT) and 13 rebounds, two assists and two steals.
“Coach is always telling me to rebound the ball and he wanted 10 boards and I would always fall short,” said Agwa on his first collegiate double-double. “Today was my first time getting a real double-double and it feels pretty good to get it.”
Weathers nearly finished with a double-double as he finished with 13 points (4-for-9 FG, 5-for-6 FT), four rebounds, eight assists and four steals, while classmate Michael Hatcher would round out the order with 10 points (4-for-10 FG, 2-for-7 3PT), four rebounds, two assists and one steal.
Freshmen Decorrian “DK” Kelly (seven points, two rebounds, four assists and a steal), Javon Bell (six points, two rebounds, three steals and three blocks) and sophomores Jordan Clarkson (four points, two rebounds, four assists and two steals) and Sam Grayson (two points and two rebounds) also contributed in the game.
Freshman Tethloach Tut made his official debut for the Manatees. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Tut joined the team this year, but was unable to play the majority of the season due to paper issues.
“It’s really difficult when you have a team for four months and you add another player,” said Parks on the addition of Tut. “it’s difficult on the individual that comes in and difficult for the coaching staff trying to figure out where to put them in the rotation. Teth is definitely someone who will play more for us and this was his first game where he was eligible. It’s our job to incorporate him with different lineups and what his strengths are on those certain lineups and you can expect to see a lot more of him because he’s not someone who is going to be sitting on the bench a lot. He’s a really super talented player, even though it was his first and he was just thrown into the fire and I definitely look forward to see him play more down the stretch and we’re happy that this great young man is here so he can be locked in and focused on what we’re trying to do.”
For the Sharks, freshman Khalil Shaheed lead the way offensively as he finished with 21 points, two rebounds and three assists. Sophomore Denari Garrett and redshirt freshman Ciaran Sandy each finished with 15 points. Garrett added seven rebounds and three assists, while Sandy added four rebounds and three steals.
Other Southern Conference Scores:
#19 Indian River State (5-0, 1-0) defeated Palm Beach State (2-6, 0-1) 74-67 to open their portion of conference.
#15 FSW (4-1) defeated Central Pointe Academy this past Wednesday at home by a score of 97-66. The Buccaneers will travel to Palm Beach to take on Palm Beach for their opening conference game. It will also be their Southern Conference debut.
Southern Conference Standings:
1. #19 Indian River State (5-0, 1-0)
2. SCF (4-2, 1-0)
3. #15 FSW (4-1)
4. Miami Dade (1-4, 0-1)
5. Palm Beach State (2-6, 0-1)
Up Next:
The Manatees will test their waters in the Southern Conference on the road as they travel to Fort Pierce to take on #19 Indian River State Wednesday night, February 10 at 7:30 pm.
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