Box Score LAKELAND - On a night when its offense was not at its best, Florida Southern still found a way to win with its defense. The same was true of Brandon Jenkins, whose steal in the closing seconds secured a 68-67 win by the Moccasins, and handed Lynn its fourth one-point loss of the season.
Florida Southern (12-4, 4-1 Sunshine State Conference) shot just 39 percent for the game and was only eight-for-26 from 3-point range, but with the game in the balance, came up with stop after stop on the defensive end of the court. The Moccasins held Lynn (3-12, 1-4) to just four points in the final seven minutes, as the Knights went 2-for-9 with four turnovers during that stretch.
Terry Jenkins led the Mocs with 20 points, Rion Rayfield scored 16, and both players hit big shots late in the second half. In the end though, it was a pair of defensive plays in the final minute that decided the game, and allowed Florida Southern to pull within one game of first-place Tampa, who they'll face on Wednesday night.
The Knights used a 16-1 run midway through the second half to take a 61-52 lead with nine minutes to play before Rayfield stopped the bleeding. The fifth-year senior hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key and drove the lane for a tough layup on the next possession to get the Mocs within four.
Lynn's Cameron McCallum scored after that to make the score 63-57, but Florida Southern scored the next nine points to take the lead. All of them came from the Jenkins brothers, with Brandon completing a three-point play at the 6:02 mark, and following that with a game-tying 3-pointer (his only one of the night). Terry then hit another 3-point shot to give the Mocs a 66-63 lead with 4:45 remaining.
When a basket by McCallum got the Knights within one with a little over three minutes to play, Terry Jenkins hit a mid-range jumper to push the lead back to three. That came with 2:44 to play, and the Mocs didn't score again, but they didn't need to.
McCallum, who scored his team's final six points, spread out over nine minutes, scored again with 1:34 on the clock to get the Knights within one. When the Mocs were unable to add to their total at the other end, the Knights had a chance to re-claim the lead. They had the ball twice in the final minute, but neither time could they even take a shot.
Brett Bailey denied Lynn on its first attempt, knocking away a pass when the Knights tried to go inside again to McCallum. The Knights' next attempt came at the very end, this time with Chris Hall trying to drive the baseline. Cut off from the basket in part by Cameron Wooten, Hall instead tried to kick the ball back outside, only to have Brandon Jenkins intercept the ball and run out the final two seconds.
It was the second time this year Florida Southern won a game with a defensive stop on the final play. Rayfield helped give the Mocs a 79-78 win over Armstrong Atlantic State with a blocked shot that also came with two seconds remaining.
For Lynn, it was not only its fourth one-point loss of the season, it was the sixth in which they've been within two points or less in the final 30 seconds.
Florida Southern led for most of the first half on Saturday, but just as they did later in the night, the Knights used a big run to close the gap before halftime. Down 22-14, the Knights scored 11 straight points to take the lead and looked like they might take it into the second half before Brandon Jenkins hit a long jumper with his toe on the 3-point line eight seconds before halftime. That put the Mocs ahead 30-29, and they maintained that lead until Hall made a 3-pointer for Lynn with 11:13 remaining.
Hall ended up leading the Knights with 16 points, 14 of them coming in the second half when the Knights shot 50 percent from the floor. Jimmy Gaskins scored 14 points and had 10 rebounds, McCallum scored 13, and Josh Garcia scored 11 and handed out six assists.
The Moccasins had only Terry Jenkins and Rayfield in double figures, though Wooten pulled down a career-high 12 rebounds. Brandon Jenkins finished with nine points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Florida Southern will travel to Tampa on Wednesday night for its game against the University of Tampa at 7:30 p.m.
An audio-only webcast of Wednesday night's game will be available at http://fsc.nmtvsports.com
Live stats for Wednesday's game will be available at http://tampaspartans.athleticsite.net/livestats/mb/xlive.htm
Tampa will have a video webcast available at http://tampaspartans.com/webcast.asp
