Mocs Keep Top Spot In SSC With Road Win At Lynn

First place in the Sunshine State Conference still belongs to the Moccasins after their 90-71 road win at Lynn Saturday.

With the win, the Moccasins raised their SSC record to 10-2, staying ahead of Tampa, which was idle Saturday, and Florida Tech, which won on the road at Barry.  Tampa and Florida Tech both are 9-3 in the SSC.

The win also was the Moccasins' first in five tries at Lynn under Jarrod Olson.  Their last win there had come on Jan. 5, 2005.

After trailing by as many as six early in the game, the Moccasins resorted to a favorite weapon, the three-pointer, to take control.  Emma Cannon's three-pointer pulled the Moccasins even at 12-12, then a second one gave FSC a brief lead before Tanja Speaker's three-pointer put the Moccasins ahead to stay with nine minutes left in the first half.  The Moccasin lead was 11, 35-24, with 4:56 to go in the period, then Lynn went on a 9-0 run to trim the margin to two, but the Knights never got any closer.

The Moccasins led 42-37 at halftime and took advantage of some Lynn scoring droughts to build the lead to double digits.  The Knights failed to score for the first 3:34 of the second half, went scoreless for two minutes while FSC had an 8-0 run and went without a point for nearly four minutes as the Moccasins produced a 13-0 spurt that put their lead at 69-45 with 10:32 left in the game.

Cannon posted her 14th double-double of the season and her sixth straight with a 21-point, 12-rebound performance.  Michaela Hawley just missed a double-double with a 20-point, nine-rebound effort.  Megan Dzikas hit five three-pointers en route to a 17-point night.  Chelsea Johnson tossed in 16 points, but saw her amazing free throw streak come to an end.  She made her first two in the game, extending her streak of consecutive free throws made to 38, but then missed one in the second half before hitting her final two.  In 12 SSC games this season, she is now 38-39 from the free throw line.

Chelsea Patterson, Lynn's leading scorer who was held scoreless in the Jan. 15 game at FSC, scored 30 to lead the Knights.

The Moccasins will be on the road again on Wednesday when they play at Eckerd at 5:30 p.m.