A weekend fishing trip to West Palm Beach is on the schedule for Florida Southern, but the Moccasins won't be spending any time on the water. Instead, they'll be going for their eighth straight win to start the season, as they square off against the Palm Beach Atlantic University Sailfish.
Florida Southern Probable Starters:
F, #15, John Thompson (16.3 pts., 9.0 rebs., .610 fg%)
F, #32, A.J. Hawkins (5.3 pts., 3.6 rebs., .714 fg%)
G, #1, Brandon Jenkins (14.3 pts., 5.4 rebs., 5.3 asts., .516 3-pt.%)
G, #2, Terry Jenkins (15.0 pts., 2.9 rebs., 3.7 asts., .649 3-pt.%)
G, #20, Rion Rayfield (13.6 pts., 2.7 rebs., 5.7 asts., 1.9 steals)
Palm Beach Atlantic Probable Starters:
F, #1, Hunter Ross (9.8 pts., 5.3 rebs., .833 ft%)
F, #31, Phil Pejovic (8.1 pts., 3.6 rebs., .353 3-pt.%)
C, #00, David Gabriel (3.9 pts., 3.1 rebs., .593 fg%)
G, #3, Jonathan Lawrence (11.4 pts., 3.5 rebs., 2.1 asts.)
G, #4, Chris Joseph (12.2 pts., 4.9 rebs., 2.4 asts., 1.8 steals)
SERIES HISTORY VS. PBA... The Moccasins lead the all-time series with the Sailfish, 11-3, which includes two wins last year. The Mocs won 87-69 in West Palm Beach in December, and 115-85 in Lakeland in January. However, the Mocs have lost at Palm Beach Atlantic twice in the last three years, including two years ago when they beat the Sailfish by 50 in Lakeland, but dropped an 81-75 decision later that season on the road.
ABOUT FLORIDA SOUTHERN... The Moccasins have started the year with seven straight wins, all but one of them by double digits, and three of them by more than 30 points. They've also scored at least 80 in all seven of those games, something they haven't done in the last 15 years. The Mocs continue to shoot well from 3-point range (48 percent) and have three players who are making more than two per game. Leading that group is Terry Jenkins, who has made 24 in 37 tries for a .649 percentage. His brother Brandon Jenkins is 16-for-31, and each of them has one game this season where they've gone 6-for-8; and while Rion Rayfield is third on the team this year with 17 three-pointers and a .425 percentage, the junior is averaging nearly three per game over the course of his career. None of them is Florida Southern's leading scorer, however. Despite a relatively quiet night in the win over Ave Maria, John Thompson is still at the top of the stat sheet with his 16.3 scoring average, and is now second in the SSC in rebounding at 9.0 per game. The Mocs deep bench has several other players capable of scoring too, and Thursday night it was Damon Ellison's turn to shine, as the freshman guard led the team with 16 points in 14 minutes.
ABOUT PBA... A Division II independent, Palm Beach Atlantic plays a schedule full of Sunshine State Conference teams, with Florida Southern already the sixth one they've faced this year. So far, the Sailfish are 1-9, a record that includes losses to Eckerd, Rollins, Florida Tech, Barry and Lynn. The loss to Lynn was a 66-48 decision on Thursday night, a game in which the Sailfish scored just three points in the final seven minutes. This will also be the second weekend in a row PBA has played a team ranked No. 3 in the country. Last Saturday, it was Valdosta State, which won 69-53, and contributed to PBA's 61.1 scoring average for the season. The Sailfish have used multiple lineups, with returning starters Chris Joseph, Jonathan Lawrence and Hunter Ross the top three scorers. However, that trio combined for just 16 points against Lynn, while Phil Pejovic scored 23 of the team's 48 points and went 7-for-14 from 3-point range. Pejovic and Dante Valentine (5.7 ppg.) are the only PBA players who have made more than five 3-pointers this year, and as a team the Sailfish have shot just 29 percent from that distance over the last two seasons.
