Box Score LAKELAND - Rion Rayfield and Rob Eldridge combined for 41 points, and John Thompson added 14 points and 12 rebounds to lead Florida Southern to an 89-70 win over Tampa at Jenkins Field House Wednesday night.
The Moccasins (16-4, 5-1) pushed their winning streak to 10 and scored their most points against the Spartans (9-6, 3-3) in 15 years. It was also their largest margin of victory in conference play this year.
Eldridge and Thompson scored Florida Southern's first 12 points as the game remained close through most of the first half. Even so, the Spartans led only one time, when Johnathan Ball hit a 3-pointer at the 12:26 mark to put Tampa ahead, 17-16. The Mocs quickly re-gained the lead on a bucket by Zach Smith followed by a pair of 3-pointers by Rayfield. The Spartans were able to keep the deficit in single digits for a while, but the Mocs out-scored them 8-2 in the final three minutes of the first half and led 45-32 at the break.
The Spartans got back in the game by out-scoring the Mocs 10-0 to start the second half, starting with a three-point play from Rashad Callaway and a 3-pointer by Matt Tomaszewski. That got them within 45-42, but the Mocs responded with a 12-2 run of their own, and led by double digits the rest of the night. Those 12 Moccasin points were scored by five different players, including Rayfield, who nailed one of his five 3-pointers of the game to give them a 55-44 lead with 14:39 remaining.
Rayfield finished with 21 points, and Eldridge scored 20. Eldridge also had nine rebounds and six assists.
Led by Thompson, the Moccasins dominated the boards, out-rebounding the Spartans 53-30. They had 22 offensive rebounds and held a staggering 26-2 advantage in second-chance points. That was in addition to shooting 47 percent.
Tampa shot just 37 percent and would have been under 30 if not for LaBruno. The junior guard went eight-for-11 from the floor and nine-for-11 from the line for a career-high 26 points. Callaway scored 17, but was only six-for-18 overall and one-for-nine behind the arc. Tampa's leading scorer coming into the game, Fred Woods, was held to just five points. He had three shots blocked, and the Florida Southern trio of Rashaad Singleton, Zach Smith and Preston Fredrick had seven blocks in the game.
Florida Southern will be on the road for its next two games, facing Lynn on Saturday night at 7:30 in Boca Raton, and Nova Southeastern next Wednesday night in Fort Lauderdale, also at 7:30.
