The Florida State College at Jacksonville Men's Basketball Team (16-5, 3-0) took sole possession of first place in the Region VIII standings Wednesday night with a thrilling overtime victory versus Florida Gateway College (12-7, 3-1). FSCJ took a while to get going, trailing 17-8 early in the first half, but battled back to knot it up 41-41 at the half.
"It wasn't going our way early, so I'm proud of our resiliency and how we stayed together as a team," said FSCJ Head Coach John Putyrski. "Winning on the road in college basketball is far from easy, but especially so in a battle for first place like this one."
FSCJ never trailed after the first half as Florida Gateway fought to keep it close on their homecourt, eventually tying it up with just under 30 seconds to go. An isolation game-winning attempt for Sophomore guard Tarence Guinyard hit the back of the rim and fell off as time expired and the teams prepared for overtime to decide first place. Guinyard would finish with a team-high 23 points.
FSCJ never trailed in overtime either, eventually sealing the deal with two clutch free throws by redshirt-freshman Jordan Smith with under 4 seconds remaining. Those two free throws were a part of a 13-point 10-rebound double-double performance by Smith. Freshman Alex McCray poured in 22 points, and sophomore Calvin Brown contributed 13 points in the matchup versus his former team.
"I was excited for this game, sure, but we all knew how important this game was for the team and standings," said Brown. "We knew it would be a fight, and we knew to we had to lock in on details to be successful. We're going to keep at it."
FSCJ looks to extend their 5-game winning streak and solidify its hold atop the standings with Saturday's afternoon home matchup versus Pasco Hernando State. FSCJ took the first matchup in the series versus Pasco Hernando with an 87-71 road victory on January 17th to open Region VIII play. To stay up to date with all the happenings on your FSCJ BlueWave and more exclusive content, follow us on Instagram and X @FSCJMBB.