Posted: Feb 26, 2025
FORT MYERS, Fla.- Showered with cheers before, during, and after Wednesday night's game against the Miami Dade Sharks, the Citrus Conference Champion #13 Florida SouthWestern State Buccaneers shined in their final home game of the 2025 season as Sarah Owona scored a career high 22 points, Georgi Buzzetti dished out a career best 10 assists, and Ivy Brown ripped down 14 rebounds as FSW avenged their only loss of conference play with a 74-60 win over the Sharks.
The Bucs got out to a red hot start as Sarah Owona nailed three threes and Samantha Serrano two more in the first six minutes as FSW took a 17-5 lead over Miami Dade to get the game going. The three point barrage continued as Serrano hit her third and Georgi Buzzetti got in on the fun to give FSW a 23-15 lead at the end of an entertaining 10 minutes of action.
FIghting for playoff positioning, the Sharks continued to fight though, trimming the Bucs lead to just five at 28-23 with 6:41 to go in the half. Elina Briede scored on a pirouette in the lane and Ivy Brown picked up an offensive rebound and scored to quickly pad the lead back to 10 at 33-23. Back to back jumpers from Owona to close out the half gave FSW a 43-29 lead into the locker rooms at the break.
A deep three from Serrano early in the second half put the Bucs up 16 at 51-35 and Briede picked off a pass and went back the other way, turning it into two with a jumper to extend the Bucs lead to 60-40 late in the period. The teams traded points over the last minute of play giving the Bucs a 63-41 lead at the end of three quarters of play.
The Bucs put it on cruise control in the fourth and Miami Dade made things interesting, cutting the FSW lead to 10 in the last two minutes before the Bucs regrouped to finish off a 74-60 win.
Owona scored a career high 22 on 9-14 shooting in the win, her third straight game posting a new career high in scoring. Serrano matched her with 22 of her own, all but cementing Citrus Conference Player of the Year honors during her freshman year. Buzzetti flirted with a triple-double once again with 8 points, a career high 10 assists, and 6 rebounds while Brown had 8 points and 14 rebounds in the physical contest.
The Bucs improve to 22-4 overall and 16-1 in Citrus Conference play with the win while Miami Dade drops to 19-9 overall and 11-5 in league action.
FSW will take the court in their regular season finale on Monday when they make the long trip to Daytona for a 5 PM tip with the Falcons.