HISTORY!!! EAGLES CLINCH 3rd STRAIGHT WINNING SEASON WITH WIN OVER FLORIDA CHRISTIAN

This is the 61st season of varsity basketball at Southwest and, until now, the Eagles had never had more than two consecutive winning seasons. That all changed on January 23, 2018, when Southwest scored a decisive 56-42 victory over a strong Florida Christian squad. The win raises the Eagles' record to 12-5 and clinches a third straight winning season under fourth-year head coach Roberto Fatjo. Some local hoops fans might have expected a Patriots win. After all, Florida Christian (14-8) beat Miami Beach by 26 points and the Hi-Tides topped Southwest by nine. But on this night the Eagles came out firing on all cylinders. Albert Hernandez swished three 3-pointers in the first quarter to help Southwest to a 16-4 lead. The Patriots, with five players at 6'4" or taller, rallied back in the second half to get within one possession. The Eagles answered with a run of their own, punctuated by a Chris Murray dunk that brought the crowd to its feet and the lead back to 11 points with four minutes remaining in the game. Jean Grullon had nine of his thirteen points in the final period to help slam the door. Murray had another double-double with 17 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots. The scoring:
Chris Murray 17
Albert Hernandez 16
Jean Grullon 13
Eddie Ramirez 5
Justin Pratt 2
Enmanuel Carbonell 2
Joel Aloma 1

The 2017-18 Eagles: Front row (left-to-right) Albert Hernandez, Adrian Piñiero, Justin Pratt, Eddie Ramirez and Enmanuel Carbonell.
Back row (left-to-right) head coach Robero Fatjo, assistant coach Julian Rivas, Michael Almeida, Jean Grullon, Ian Castellanos, Chris Murray, Sebastian Garcia, Joel Aloma, Kevin Rodriguez, assistant coach Josel Aloma, assistant coach Nick Ronda and graduate assistant Gino Macias.

In addition to the players above, the following players contributed to the historic three-year run:
Orlando Fletcher (class of 2017), Andre Abreu (class of 2017), Dayn Lopez (class of 2017), Edward Espinoza (class of 2016), Antonio Rondon (class of 2016), Joshua Fernandez (class of 2016), Jordan Rivas (class of 2016), Armando Rodriguez (class of 2016), Jorge Trinchet (class of 2016), Mark Cine (class of 2016), Chris Naranjo (class of 2016) and Marlon Navarro (class of 2016).

JV BEATS FLORIDA CHRISTIAN, 54-45

Gilbert Gonzalez scored 11 points and Danny Leal added 10 to lead the Southwest junior varsity to a 54-45 victory over visiting Florida Christian. The Baby Eagles (10-7) scored 25 points in the second quarter and were up by as many as 20 points in the second half.