February 25, 2026
Bucs Clinch Share of Citrus Title
It was a night of celebration in Suncoast Arena on Wednesday as first the Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers honored their six sophomores playing in their final home games as Bucs in a pregame ceremony before beating the visiting Santa Fe Saints 85-70 to clinch a share of their first conference championship since the 2020 season.
FORT MYERS, Fla.- It was a night of celebration in Suncoast Arena on Wednesday as first the Florida SouthWestern Buccaneers honored their six sophomores playing in their final home games as Bucs in a pregame ceremony before beating the visiting Santa Fe Saints 85-70 to clinch a share of their first conference championship since the 2020 season.
The Bucs got off to a slow start, falling behind the Saints 11-4 to start the ballgame, but quickly recovered on the back of Kenyon Giles who drilled a trio of threes to tie the score up at 15. A Mason Blazer triple broke a 22-22 tie later on to put the Bucs ahead and another Blazer three put FSW back ahead after the Saints momentarily took a one point advantage. Tied at 34 late in the period, Stephen Okoro grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked it out to Giles for his fourth three of the half, giving FSW a 37-34 lead into the locker rooms at the break.
Tyler Bey got the scoring going for the Bucs in the second half and quickly FSW had their lead padded to nine at 47-38. Sainta Fe went on a 5-0 run to cut the Bucs lead to four, but Blazer drilled another three to put the Bucs back up a touchdown with 14:30 to go. The Saints made a couple of runs to make things interesting, but every time they did, the Bucs had an answer. Blazer and Giles continued to overwhelm the Saints from the outside with threes to balloon the lead to 74-58 before a thunderous slam from Bey put a bow on it for the Purple and Aqua. With the shot clock off and their home crowd on their feet, the Bucs dribbled out an 85-70 win to close out their 2026 home schedule in style.
The Bucs beat the Saints at their own game, shooting 47% from distance with 18 made threes on the night. Giles led the way with 26 points including seven made threes while Blazer had 22 and Bey scored a career high 19.
With the win, the Bucs clinch a share of the 2026 Citrus Conference Championship as well as the #1 seed from the league for the upcoming FCSAA Championships. With one game left to go in the regular season the Bucs improve to 23-6 overall and 13-2 in conference action while Santa Fe is now in a dog fight for the final postseason ticket from the Citrus as they fall to 18-9 overall and 7-7 in league play.
The Bucs can win their first outright Conference Championship since 2020 on Monday when they travel to Fort Pierce to take on Indian River in a 5 PM tip to close out the regular season.