By: James Phillips
The men’s basketball team was able to ride an extremely explosive first half to a victory over the Gulf Coast State Commodores. With this win the men were able to snag their first conference win of the season and give some serious meat to the hope of obtaining themselves a spot in the state tournament. Harrison Curry supplied the necessary boost in the first half that allowed the Pirates to get out to a big lead early, going into the half up 39-27. The Pirates rode that wave of offense to shore in the second half as they ended up winning the game 76-69, scoring just past their season average of 75 points per game.
The Pirates are really starting to mesh on both sides of the floor as they enter the thick of their schedule, hopefully the team keeps trending upwards and is able to keep the momentum going through the rest conference play. With how everything sits right now, the men are 10-7 overall and 1-2 in conference play. With ten conference games left in the regular season, Pensacola State could potentially run the table and wind up finishing the season at number one or number two in the conference. Even without winning the rest of their games, if the teams ahead of Pensacola State lose a couple of timely games and Pensacola State wins just enough of the remaining schedule, the pieces could still fall in place to allow Pensacola State to finish the year in first or second place in the conference putting them in the position to go to the State Tournament.
The next three games for the men will be just as important as they are for the women. The men will face off against nationally ranked teams in #9 Tallahassee and #18 North West Florida State, as well as unranked conference foe Chipola. Hopefully the Pirates continue to play on a high level and continue improving because if that’s the case, they have some upsets to cause on the near horizon and the very obtainable goal of a state tournament berth coming their way.