Men's Basketball Defeats Palm Beach On the Road

The Indian River State College Pioneers Men's Basketball Team move to 6-0 after securing their first road win of the season at Palm Beach State in Lake Worth, FL Tuesday evening. Heading in to the game the 4-1 Panthers of Palm Beach State appeared very formidable having beaten 4 NJCAA Division I opponents including Citrus Conference foes Miami Dade and St. Petersburg College.

IRSC started the game off strong with a rim-rattling dunk by All-American Jayshayne Woodard on the very first play of the game. IRSC continued the strong first half and took a 19-point lead into the halftime break. However things would change in the second half as IRSC went cold at the 3-point and freethrow lines and PBSC cut into the lead. But when it was critical, the Pioneers got back to back defensive stops and made late freethrows to hold the charging Panthers at bay.

The Pioneers were led by sophomore Mostapha El Moutaouakkil with a season-high 40 points. 2022-23 First Team All-American Jayshayne Woodard missed out on his first career triple-double by the slimmest of margins finishing with 9 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists.

Coach Morosco after the game: "You have to give Palm Beach a ton of credit. They never gave up and kept clawing to get back in the game. We have to do a better job executing in the second half were unforced turnovers and defensive lapses allowed them to get easy baskets to get back in the game. But I'll give our guys credit, when it was absolutely necessary, we made the play. Now I'd prefer we do it a lot earlier so we're not in that late situation, but this is a great learning experience in late-game execution for a young team."