Men Rout Florida Gateway, Win Back-To-Back Regular Season Conference Championships  

Lake City, FL----For the second time in FSCJ history, the men's basketball team has won the FCSAA Regular Season Conference Championship. It marks the second time in as many seasons for the men's program—now ranked #8 nationally—who defeated rival Florida Gateway College with a dominant defensive performance 76-45 Wednesday night.  

FSCJ (23-4, 9-0) never trailed in the competition over FGC (7-17, 1-8) and opened the contest with a 16-6 run led by sophomore guards Eddie Mitchell and Jordan Smith, who co-led all scorers with 15-points apiece.

"As returners who won it last year, we wanted to set the tone from the jump," Mitchell, who is a captain for the team, said after. "We've fought hard and fought together the last two years to get to where we are as a program, and we weren't leaving anything up to chance in this one."

FSCJ did not give Florida Gateway said chance and used a 20-7 run to keep the game out of reach for the hosts. FSCJ's defense—currently ranked the number 1 overall defense in the country—held FGC to 34.0% shooting from the field and forced them into 20 turnovers, which FSCJ turned into 27-points of their own.

"It was an off-shooting night for our team, but the message pretty much all season has been, 'when the postseason comes, we can't depend on just making shots. Our defense and rebounding has to be able to make up for even the worst shooting night,'" Head Coach John Putyrski said after the game. "Our guys have consistently shown they believe in that message, and I'm proud of how far we've come at this point."

Last season, FSCJ clinched the conference regular season championship at home versus Palm Beach State with only one game to play in the season. This year, however, the men's undefeated start in conference play has allowed them to clinch the regular season with three games still to play.  

The men are back in action Saturday afternoon when they take on Pasco-Hernando State College at 2 P.M. at "The Reef" on FSCJ's South Campus. They are 3-0 versus Pasco-Hernando this season and are looking to clinch the difficult season sweep of the Bobcats.

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