"It feels good to get back on the winning column," said head coach Tom Parks. "I think regardless of our record over the last five games, I thought at times we played some very good stretches of basketball. In particular, the last three games we played really well, even with a lot of new things that we added in on the fly with very little practice time and a lot of film sessions and I just felt like our group locked in. I know it got ugly at the end, but it was nice to end up having more points on our side of the scoreboard."
"It felt good to get this win," said sophomore James "Pop" Weathers. "We have been harping the past couple of weeks to get our first dub in conference play this season and we started coming back from break while losing two straight against Seward and Pensacola and getting our first dub in conference is a big win for us because last week we had two close ones and we wanted those, so we felt good coming off of the FSW game and it was better than all."
"We came out hot and gave it to them (Miami Dade) in the first half, but I felt we kind of slowed the pace down in the second half, so we had to adjust our plays and while they scored more points, we just had to lock in on the last two minutes and that made it better for the win."
"It feels good to get our first win tonight," said sophomore Clarence Cummings III. "It was a team game and it just feels good after losing five straight games and winning always heals everything."
"It feels great after snapping the five-game losing streak we had with losing three in conference play," said freshman Cobey Harraway. "We definitely needed this win just to raise everyone's spirits and it just feels good to win, even if it was ugly towards the end of game. All that matters is we got the win at the end of the day."
In the first half, both teams were off to a slow start in the first two minutes until freshman Matthew Khoury scored the first points of the game with a mid-range shot from the corner before freshman Ronnail Tape hit the Manatees first points with a layup. After another Shark layup, Weathers would give the Manatees their first lead with a 3-point shot. A Weathers rebound lead to another 3-point shot hit by Cummings III for an 8-4 lead. The Sharks would tie the game at 11 apiece after a 3-point shot by freshman Speedy Carcamo before calling a timeout.
After the timeout, freshman Ametri Moss would hit a layup to give the Manatees back the lead before they went on a 9-2 run for two and a half minutes to make it 20-13 before extending their lead by as much as 17 thanks to 3-points shots by Harraway and freshman Jacari White before sophomore Darik Tannis-Harriet hit a buzzer-beating mid-range shot with three minutes left in the first half. After a few more adjustments to the formation, Harraway would hit one final 3-pointer to end the first half before the Manatees took the first half 39-25.
At the start of the second half, the Sharks started to make a comeback, slowly but surely, even while the Manatees got crucial buckets from Cummings III and Weathers. The Sharks would cut the Manatees lead from 17 points to single digits with less than 13 minutes left in the second half.
With three minutes left in the game and the Manatees up 66-62, the Sharks would then put pressure on the Manatees and take advantage with a few steals before taking their first lead of the second half by a score of 67-66, but a Moss layup would give the Manatees back their lead to 68-67.
The Sharks would try to get the lead back with a layup, but strong defense by White from a block and taking a charge would continue to keep the Manatees lead alive. The Sharks would then try three more attempts to get the lead with less than a minute left in the half, but to no avail as Cummings III would grab a crucial rebound on the defense end before Parks called a timeout with 34 seconds left.
After the timeout, Cummings III would attempt a 3-point shot to extend the lead to four, but it would not fall in, yet like a silent assassin, Harraway would grab a crucial offensive rebound and draw the foul to go to the free throw line with 15.3 seconds left.
After Harraway made one of two free throws, the Sharks would go for one more final shot attempt to tie the game or get the win with 11 seconds left. Sophomore D'Monte Brown would go for the final shot, but it would not fall as the Manatees would secure the win.
"I wanted to hit both free throws towards the end of the game," said Harraway on the last 15 seconds of the game. "On the first attempt, I was definitely thinking about it too much and I let my foot slip a little bit and let the nerves get to me. I knew I had to make the second one for sure because it would have been tougher to see if we were up one instead of two or three."
Three Manatees scored in double figures and it was Cummings III that lead the way offensively as he finished with a season-high 20 points (5-for-13 FG, 2-for-3 3PT, 8-for-8 FT), five rebounds, one assist and one block.
"Plain and simple, I just played basketball," said Cummings III on his game. "I don't want to say too much, it just play basketball and hopefully get the win."
"Clarence shows up every day and is somebody you can root for," said Parks on Cummings III. "I think a majority of the team look up to him as like a big brother type of role and he just shows up and I felt like we lost games this season because of our free throw shooting and to see him shoot a pretty good percentage of 14 of 19 (74%) and his eight of eight obviously goes a long way into that and it's nice to see him at his success. I thought he played well and took good shots while he was in a rhythm most of the time. I think him and Ronnail (Tape) had a height disadvantage every game, yet they just battle, so Clarence is someone who is playing out of a position at times, especially from a defensive standpoint, and can go out there and compete every day and he did that today."
Harraway would follow with 18 points (6-for-13 FG, 5-for-7 3PT, 1-for-2 FT), five rebounds and two assists.
"I felt good in the first half, but in the second half, I was kind of quiet a little bit and wasn't shooting as many looks as I got and couldn't get them to fall," said Harraway on his game. "Part of it was the fatigue and I didn't come out a single second in the second half, which was a mental lapse with it getting in my head and thinking about my shot too much instead of just letting it fly, but overall I thought I had a good game offensively and defensively with my rebounding."
"The thing about Cobey is he is just an everyday guy," said Parks on Harraway. "He shows up everyday and works. He doesn't complain when he doesn't get a certain amount of shots. He just plays basketball, whether the ball finds him or not, even if he misses shots or if he makes them. I thought he took some really good shots and his teammates found him and I thought he shot the ball with confidence."
Weathers would round out the order with 11 points (4-for-8 FG, 3-for-6 3PT), seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals.
"I came into the game thinking of not trying to force anything and just take what the defense gives me," said Weathers on his game. "I just wanted to let the game come to me and no matter how many points I had, as long as we got the 'W', I'm ok with it."
White would add nine points (3-for-10 FG, 1-for-3 3PT, 2-for-3 FT), five rebounds, four assists, one block and one steal, while freshman Ametri Moss had five points (2-for-8 FG, 1-for-2 FT), seven rebounds, one assist and two steals, Tape added four points (1-for-3 FG, 2-for-4 FT) and three rebounds and Tannis-Harriet added two points (1-for-1 FG), one rebound and one assist.
Notes:
With his 11 points, Weathers has 779 career points and 409 this season. He needs 221 to reach 1,000 points and 397 to hold the single season points held by D'Moi Hodge (805, 2018-20).
Other Southern Conference Scores:
#5 Indian River State (19-2, 4-0 Southern) defeated Hillsborough (8-10, 2-3 Southern) 74-64 in Tampa. The Hawks will face #15 Florida Southwestern (16-2, 3-0 Southern Wednesday night, January 26.
Southern Conference Standings:
1. #5 Indian River State (19-2, 4-0)
2. #15 FSW (16-2, 3-0)
3. HCC (8-10, 2-3)
4. SCF (12-10, 1-3)
5. MDC (8-11, 0-4)
Up Next:
The Manatees are back on the road as they travel to Miami to take on Miami Dade Monday night, January 24 at 7 pm. This will be a makeup game from January 5.
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