The Florida State College at Jacksonville Men's Basketball Team (26-8), playing in their first national tournament in school history, defeated Howard Community College (26-7) 89-75 in the opening round of the national tournament to secure their first national tournament victory in school history. The Howard Dragons from Columbia, Maryland were seeded as the 15th overall seed while FSCJ was seeded as the 18th. The tournament field features 20 of the best teams from across the country.
"A victory on this stage is no surprise to us, and we're not calling it an upset. Our guys belong here," said Head Coach John Putyrski. "Our region and district have some of the best junior college basketball in the country, and we hope to keep representing that well."
FSCJ got off to its customary hot start versus the Howard Dragons from Columbia, Maryland. Sophomore captain Tarence Guinyard led the way in scoring with 21 points, but redshirt-freshman Jordan Smith paced FSCJ with a monster double-double of 16 points and 14 rebounds. FSCJ shot 12/26 from long range, and that hot shooting led to five in double figures for 18th seeded FSCJ. Freshmen Eddie Mitchell and Alex McCray finished with 17 points and 12 points, respectively, while fellow freshman Aiden Fletcher poured in 19 off the bench.
"Early in the season, it was really one player carrying the load for us," said Smith. "Tarence is the best JUCO guard in the country. You can't tell any of us otherwise. Over the last couple months though, the rest of us have taken turns really stepping up to make us a much more complete team."
It's a short turnaround for FSCJ, as they look to continue their tournament run tomorrow night when they take on the number 2-overall seed in the country, South Suburban College (31-2) at 8:00pm CST.
"We just had a great win for our college, but don't really have a ton of time to enjoy it. We need to rest and quickly refocus on South Suburban," said Coach Putyrski. "South Suburban is very talented and statistically have the best offense in the country along with the number one leading scorer in the country. It'll be a challenge for sure, but our guys have proved all year they're up for challenges."
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