Bradenton, Fla - Sophomore Isaiah 'Ziggy' Josue's game-winning 3-point shot helped he SCF basketball team (14-8, 4-2 Southern) end one of their biggest drought against any team they played as they defeated Florida Southwestern State (14-8, 2-5 Southern) by a score of 63-62. The win marks the first win for the Manatees against the Buccaneers in their program history.
"I don't really think about not beating FSW, but to me it's just another game," said head coach Tom Parks. "I think as a coach when you work yourself up for one win because of certain reasons, you lose sight of what's really important, so we had this one circled because its the next one. I think that we knew that this would be a big one for us since we only get them one time at home this season, so it was one of our goals to get this win at home. I wouldn't call it an upset because we have a competitive team and beat a lot of good teams this year and working hard, but it feels good because this was a big conference win for us."
"We stayed with FSW the whole game," said Josue. "We just trusted the process despite missing the last two free throws, but the team believed in me and we got it back. We had faith in each other to get the win. It was a big win."
"Overall, I felt we did really good," said freshman Kasheem Grady. "We were a bit shaken in the first hafl, but we came back and fought hard to the end and never gave up as a team, We were just dogs today. It feels amazing that we beat FSW for the first time in our program's history."
In the first half, both teams started off a little slow, but soon the Buccaneers would take the early lead going up by as much as nine points, but with Josue and sophomore Ametri Moss leading the offense and strong rebounding by classmate Ronnail Tape, the Manatees were able to stay on track and keep the deficit to single digits, despite losing the first half 36-31.
In the second half, the Manatees did not want to go down without a fight as Moss, Josue and Grady pushed the Manatees to give them their first lead before the Buccaneers regained the lead by one point.
With 11 seconds left and the Buccaneers up 62-60 thanks to a free throw, the Manatees would have possession of the ball. As it looked like Harraway was about to drive the ball to tie the game, he made a last-second pass to an open Josue in the left corner for an open 3-point shot with 1.4 seconds left in the game. The Buccaneers would try to get one last shot attempt, but it was to no avail as the Manatees secured the historic win.
"My dad always told that I had to be prime time, which I was thinking when I made the game-winning shot," said Josue on the last 11 seconds. "It was a big time play that we got the win."
"As a coach, when we're at the free throw line with the other team having no timeouts, we play this back and forth whether we should call a timeout or not and the guys were wondering the same thing," said Parks on the last 11 seconds of the game. "I decided not to call a timeout and told them 'just push, just push' and they followed along smoothly where we had multiple dominoes fall. The cool thing about Ziggy's shot was great, but the beauty of it is he has been a big help for us with high expectations while continuing to work with him and his resiliency of breaking his habits. Ziggy had a great game and I'm glad he took the shot and I was confident he did it.
In the end, three Manatees scored in double figures. It was Moss that lead the way as he finished with 21 points (10-for-13 FG, 1-for-1 3PT), four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Josue would follow with 19 points (7-for-11 FG, 3-for-5 3PT, 2-for-5 FT), two rebounds and two assists off the bench.
"I felt like I could have rebound the ball more," said Josue on his game. "But this time on the offensive side, I played really well."
Grady would round out the order with 10 points (3-for-7 FG, 2-for-4 3PT, 2-for-2 FT), five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Sophomore Cobey Harraway had five points (3-for-12 FG, 2-for-6 3PT), two rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block.
"I just went out there and played hard to help the team win," said Grady on his game. "I'm just there with them."
In rebounding, Tape lead the way with eight boards to go along with two points, one assist and one steal.
Sophomore Skylar Wicks (two points, two rebounds and two assists) and freshmen Elijah 'Slim Terry (two points, three rebounds, one assist and one block), Josh Ijeh (two points, two rebounds and one steal) and Dresean Knight (one block) also contributed in the game.
For the Buccaneers, Jadrian Tracy lead the offense with 22 points, five rebounds and two assists, while Dezdrick Lindsay had 12 points, two rebounds and a block.
Other Southern Conference Scores:
Indian River State (19-5, 5-1 Southern) defeated Miami Dade (14-11, 3-4 Southern) 84-71.
Southern Conference Standings:
1. Indian River State (19-5, 5-1)
2. SCF (14-8, 4-2)
3. Miami Dade (14-11, 3-4)
4. Hillsborough (15-7, 2-4)
5. FSW (14-8, 2-5)
Up Next:
The Manatees will head on the road for their next conference game as they will travel to Miami to take on Miami Dade College Saturday afternoon, February 4 at 4 pm.
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