WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Marcelo Perez exploded off the bench, tallying 18 points in just 15 minutes of action, but the freshman's scoring outburst wasn't enough to will the Bucs to victory at the Rubin Arena with Barry falling to the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish 76-80. 

INSIDE THE MATCHUP
Final:  Barry 76, Palm Beach Atlantic 80
Records: Barry (14-10, 9-8 SSC), PBA (12-13, 8-9 SSC)
All-Time Series: Barry leads 28-9

SUMMARY:

• It looked early as though Barry was going to put some distance between the two teams after a 7-0 run capped off by four straight from Tylan Birts but the first half ended up being quite back-and-forth with seven lead changes taking place. A Perez layup at the halftime buzzer sent the teams into the locker room all knotted up. | Barry 36, PBA 36
• The Sailfish came roaring out of the intermission, sinking three straight threes to start the half. The Bucs trailed for most of the second half but were able to shrink the lead to just two with 2:28 to play but ultimately couldn't complete the comeback.

NOTEWORTHY:

• The game in total was tight statistically with the two teams coming out even in the rebounding battle at 29 a-piece and Barry just slightly losing the turnover battle 20-19.
• Turnovers also plagued the Bucs in their last matchup against the Sailfish where they committed a season-high 21 TOs.
• Daniel Mortensen came extremely close to breaking into the 1,000 career points club for the Bucs and we now look forward to next weeks game against Florida Southern where he will need just two points to accomplish the milestone.

ON THE HORIZON:

Next up for the Bucs is another road trip to another SSC opponent with Barry driving up the road to Lakeland, Fla., to take on the Florida Southern Moccasins on Saturday Feb. 23.