MIAMI SHORES, Fla. -- In front of their largest and most energetic crowd of the season, Barry University men's basketball team beat Palm Beach Atlantic, 67-58, Wednesday on homecoming night.
A rowdy fan base of 1,012 witnessed their Buccaneers stump the Sailfish on Black Out night in Health & Sports Center to move within a game of the .500 mark with three regular season games remaining. The Bucs (11-12) will play at Tampa Saturday and return home for the regular season finale 5:30 p.m. March 2 against Nova Southeastern.
The Buccaneers got a big lift from its bench for the first time in a couple weeks, outscoring the Sailfish, 37-6.
Barry led by as many as 26 with just under eight minutes to play before the Sailfish (1-23) made a late push to cut the deficit to single digits.
Magne Fivelstad scored 15 seconds into the second half to give the Buccaneers a nine-point lead before Marcus Hardy answered with a dunk on the other end for Palm Beach Atlantic. Barry's lead ballooned to 19 when Bryan Van Cott converted a three-point play with 10:07 to play.
Chad Renfro buried a jumper to extend the Bucs lead to 21, and Aaron Martin canned one of his three triples to give Barry its largest lead, 60-34, with 7:46 remaining. PBA outscored the Buccaneers, 22-5, over the last 7:14 during mop-up duty.
Martin finished with 16 points and two steals. Fivelstad had 12 points, Van Cott scored 11, and Renfro had 10 points and seven boards. Matt Roy had 13 points, and Jahvah Braswell had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Palm Beach Atlantic.
The Buccaneers shot 13 of 26 from the field in the second half, and finished the game hitting 45.1 percent of their shots. The Sailfish shot 40.4 percent from the floor.
Both teams grabbed 34 rebounds.
Barry's Justin McCoy had five assists and two steals, Vlad Raymonvil went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc, finishing with nine points and three assists, and Damien Dwaine had six points and five rebounds.
TIP-INS: Fans were also treated to a couple performances and an autograph session from the Miami Heat dance team ... Barry honored its student-athletes who earned a 4.0 grade point average during the fall semester ... Barry announced its homecoming king, Justin Crayton, and queen, Ferin Richardson ... Men's basketball player Jason Llaneras celebrated his birthday, collecting a rebound in the win.