Basketball Continues Hot Start to Season with Comeback Victory Against Hillsborough

The Florida State College at Jacksonville men's basketball team trailed by as many as 16 points in the second half before rallying to take down Hillsborough Community College (HCC) 91-86. HCC jumped out to a 10 point advantage early in the first half with a competitive back and forth game from there.

"It was a great basketball game. Obviously, not at first for us," said FSCJ Head Coach John Putyrski. "Hillsborough is talented, very well coached, and the best opponent we have faced so far. I was not surprised by our slow start. I knew we needed to stay composed and we'd go on our run. That along with rebounding was the message to the guys."

FSCJ ultimately began chipping away at the deficit with an offensive rebound by Mark Brown, playing against his previous school, and then spinning fade-away to cut the Hawks lead to 14. That sparked the start of a 17-7 run for FSCJ.  

It wasn't until 1:09 left in the game and two clutch free throws from Gary Anderson that FSCJ finally tied and took its first lead since 2-0. FSCJ closed the game on a 14-2 run with contributions from all over. Sophomore guard Tarence Guinyard led the team in scoring with 34 points and pulled down 8 rebounds. Freshman guard Aiden Fletcher stuffed the stat sheet as well with 20 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals.

Returners from last year's FSCJ team remembers their 18 point loss last season to HCC. "I feel like last year, we might have laid down and kind of gave in, but we kept fighting today," said Guinyard after the game. "It wasn't pretty, but we didn't give up. We were short-handed and everybody who could stepped up. That made for a fun locker room afterwards."

FSCJ continues its five game home stretch with Wednesday night's 6:00 p.m. game versus SFA Prep.

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