WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Palm Beach Atlantic men's basketball team picked up its first win of the season against Florida National on Wednesday night.

Tonight's win marked the first win for the Sailfish of the 2021-22 season and the first win under new head coach Cole Rose. Lockdown defense throughout the game allowed PBA (1-2) to pull away for a 78-52 win. 

"I'm just really thankful for the opportunity to work at PBA and love coaching here," coach Rose said about his first win.

Will Lee led PBA in scoring and assists with 15 points on five triples along with dropping five dimes. Jakob Hester scored 14 points, going a perfect 6-for-6 from the field with six rebounds. Nate Ward added 13 points with three rebounds off the bench. Jalen Cooper finished one point and one rebound shy of a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. Aleksa Rakic recorded nine points four rebounds. Marcus Montalvo tallied eight points and five rebounds off the bench.

The stout PBA defense held FNU (1-2)  to just a 29 percent field goal percentage in the contest.

"I'm excited and proud of our guys to get the first win of the year and get some momentum going forward," Rose said. "Florida National is a talented, good team and they've played some tough opponents this year and have really been able to score the ball. We've been working hard on improving on the defensive end, so to hold them to 52 points is a good step in the right direction for our program. We battled through some foul trouble and adversity early but the guys stuck together and kept playing hard and got the result we wanted."

The action was tightly contested for the first 10 minutes of play. A 7-0 run from the Sailfish with five points from Rakic and a dunk from Cooper gave PBA a 20-12 lead with nine minutes left in the period. PBA's largest lead of the first half never grew more than nine points. The 'Fish kept the Conquistadors at arm's length despite never making it to the charity stripe in the first half. A 3-pointer from Lee allowed PBA to head into halftime with a 35-27 lead.

The Sailfish stepped up the intensity in the second half. With PBA leading 49-41 with 11 minutes left, the Sailfish forced FNU into a nearly five-minute scoring drought. A 13-0 run from the Sailfish which included eight points from Montalvo, gave the 'Fish a 63-41 lead. PBA held FNU to three points from the 11-minute mark until the four-minute mark. The Sailfish cruised the rest of the way to a 78-52 win.

"We'll enjoy this one for the night and then look forward to opening up conference play on Saturday against a really good Rollins team that's playing well right now," Rose said.

PBA shot 52 percent from the field in the contest, its highest mark all season. The Sailfish reinforcements had a strong showing with 39 bench points. PBA moved the ball well, totaling 19 assists on its 30 field goals.

The Sailfish play their first conference games of the season on Saturday against Rollins. The game at Rubin Arena takes place at 7 p.m.