4th Herd Sends #18 Santa Fe Marching with Upset Win

Bradenton, Fla - The SCF basketball team (11-5) got a much needed revenge rematch Saturday afternoon at Hal Chasey Gymnasium as they upset #18 Santa Fe College (10-2) 99-84. With the win, the Manatees are now 5-13 against the Saints.

“It feels really good to get the win, but more importantly it feels good how we won,” said head coach Tom Parks. "I thought we did a really good job playing together and stuck to our defensive game plan, even though they scored 84 points, despite them being a high-scoring team. I thought some of the stuff we worked on offensively in a very short amount of time looked really good today and I thought we caught them off-guard in some areas, so I'm just proud that are guys really put a lot into the game plan while we prepped it for a day. We really wanted to focus on St. Pete this past Thursday, so we only focused on Santa Fe for a day where we watched film yesterday, had a good shoot around today, but it was just nice to see us take the right process and come out with a win."

"It felt really good to get the win over Santa Fe," said freshman Jacari White. "When we played them at their place, we weren't as together as we played today, and we really showed them how we scored when we almost hit 100 points and that really showed the team what we had."

The first half saw the Manatees gain an early 10-4 lead with sophomore Kwo Agwa getting eight rebounds in the first half, but soon there were several ties and lead changes between the two teams with the Saints taking the lead by as much as 12 points, but the Manatees would eventually would tie the game before the Saints took the first half 44-42.

The second half saw in the favor of the Manatees and after careful tweaks in plays on both ends of the floor, the Manatees took advantage of several scoring opportunities behind the 3-point line, thanks to White and sophomore Javon Bell, and strong offensive rebounding by Agwa. In the end, after a final 3-point shot by Bell, the Manatees were able to seal the deal and get the win to split the series with the Saints.

Six Manatees scored in double figures with two getting a double-double. It was White that lead the Manatees offense as he finished with a season-high 24 points (7-for-10 FG, 6-for-7 3PT, 4-for-4 FT), five rebounds, two assists and a block.

"I just had confidence in my work on the court," said White on his game. "I get in the gym late night and just kept shooting and it really showed today."

"Jacari is a really good basketball player," said Parks on White. "I think when you have a player like 'Pop', who has the ball in his hands a lot, you kind of get stuck watching 'Pop', but Jacari did a really good job getting his feet ready to shoot. He's a microwave and can heat up really fast and when he makes a couple of baskets, he can roll off five or six in a row, so I wasn't surprised because I coach him every day, but I'm proud of how he performed and I thought overall.

Agwa and sophomore James 'Pop' Weathers would follow behind White with a double-double each. Awga had 13 points (5-for-10 FG, 3-for-4 FT), 14 rebounds (seven offensive), two assists and six blocks, while Weathers had 18 points (5-for-9 FG, 3-for-5 3PT, 5-for-5 FT), 11 assists, five rebounds and one block.

"Pop did a really good job getting his teammates involved and trusting his teammates' shots," said Parks on Weathers. "If you really lock in on Pop and how he plays when he passes the ball and tells them to shoot, he has a lot of confidence for it when he tries to create plays for his teammates and I think he's really starting to trust his teammates more, which is nice."

"I think Kwo is doing an unbelievable job rebounding on both ends of the floor," said Parks on Agwa. "But I'm very impressed with his rebounding on the offensive end. Kwo is playing outside of his position right now and he's doing an unbelievable job and even though he's outside of his position, he's really good at that spot, but we're continually trying to enhance his game and get him on the perimeter, but it's hard to have someone like that who impacts the game so much around the basket like standing on the 3-point line, but I'm proud of how he responded, even while he's up-and-down in terms of his consistency and it was really nice to see him have his best game as a Manatee on Thursday and then follow it up with a 14-rebound game, which is tough to do."

"What I'm really proud of Kwo honestly is I didn't take him out in the second half and while he suffered a knee injury prior to his signing with us, which took a while for him to get back, he's someone you have to be cautious with how much you play him and he's finally at the point where he feels healthy and a lot better and not as stiff and I'm proud he gave us that effort for 20 minutes, which didn't really fall off. He really played with great energy and effort the entire game."

Bell and freshman Ametri Moss each finished with 14 points. Bell (5-for-14 FG, 4-for-10 3PT) added three rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal, while Moss (5-for-12 FG, 2-for-5 3PT, 2-for-2 FT) added four rebounds and two assists. Sophomore Clarence Cummings III would round out the order with 11 points (4-for-9 FG, 3-for-4 FT), five rebounds, five assists and two steals.

"Coach Parks always tell to not stop shooting the ball," said Bell on his game. "I had to keep letting the ball fly so I can trust it and he can trust it."

Freshmen Cobey Harraway (five points, one assist and one block) and Ronnail Tape (one rebound) also contributed in the game.

Notes:

1. This was the third time this season that the Manatees have upset an NJCAA Top 25 team and the fifth time in program history.

2. Bell returned to the rotation after missing the last six games due to suspension.

"I'm happy I got to be back with the team today," said Bell on his return. "My teammates were even happier to have me back when they were passing me the ball and they kept me going, so everybody eats on offense and I loved it."

"I feel like we've been without Javon so much that I woke up and didn't even think about it," said Parks on Bell's return. "When coach Trav (Nesby) was in my office, he said 'we got number one back' and I was like 'oh shoot that's right, we can play Javon now' and it was nice to look down the bench and put him in the game. He put a ton of work on his jumpshot during the offseason. He had a hitch in his shot before and hats off to coach Trav and Nav (Gill) when he was here to work a lot with our guys during the summer."

"Javon lives in the gym and when he doesn't have a ride, he walks and he'll put countless hours on the shooting machine and when he doesn't use it, he follow up with his rebounding and get it back at the three. He worked hard on his three this year and I'm proud he could come back like that and go in the break with some confidence."

3. Weathers' 18 points put him at 672 and needs 328 to reach 1,000 career points.

4. This was Agwa's second straight double-double and his rebounds (both total and offensive) and total blocks were both career-highs.

Other Southern Conference Scores:

#6 Indian River State (12-2) were upset by Polk State (8-4) losing by a score of 86-84. The Pioneers will face Florida State College at Jacksonville (0-5) Wednesday night, December 15.

#25 FSW (10-2) defeated Gulf Coast State (9-4) 68-61. The Buccaneers will face Polk State on the road Wednesday night, December 15.

Miami Dade (7-6) defeated Barry University JV 102-64. The Sharks will face St. Pete (4-7) Saturday afternoon, December 18.

Hillsborough (5-6) fell to Polk State 75-73 this past Wednesday. The Hawks will host St. Pete Tuesday night, December 14.

Remaining Southern Conference Non-Conference Schedule:

12/14:

HCC vs SPC

12/15:

#6 Indian River State vs Florida State College at Jacksonville

#25 FSW vs Polk State

12/16:

#6 Indian River State vs North Florida Prep

12/18:

HCC @ RV Albany Tech

Miami Dade @ SPC

12/29:

Miami Dade @ ASA Miami

#25 FSW vs Illinois Central

12/30:

Miami Dade vs Illinois Central

#25 FSW vs ASA Miami

#6 Indian River State vs #15 Shelton State

HCC @ #18 Santa Fe

12/31:

#6 Indian River State vs Southern Union State

1/3/22:

Miami Dade @ Florida Memorial JV

1/4/22:

#25 FSW vs 212 Academy

Up Next:

The Manatees will look to close 2021 with two more wins in non-conference play as they welcome Pensacola State (8-6) Wednesday night, December 29 and Seward County CC (5-7) Thursday night, December 30. Seward County will play Polk State Wednesday afternoon, December 29 at Hal Chasey Gymnasium prior to playing SCF.