Florida Southern (19-7, 10-4) plays its final regular season home game Wednesday night, hosting the University of Tampa (20-5, 9-5) in a game that could help sort out the top of the Sunshine State Conference standings - or make the race even tighter. The Moccasins, who are looking for their fourth straight 20-win season, are still in the running for a share of the SSC regular season title and the No. 1 seed in next week's SSC Tournament; and both Florida Southern and Tampa are trying to secure first-round home games and state their case for bids to the NCAA South Region Tournament in March.
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Florida Southern Probable Starters:
F, #33, Cameron Wooten (7.5 pts., 5.1 rebs., .411 3-pt.%)
F, #40, Brett Bailey (7.2 pts., 4.3 rebs., .583 fg%)
G, #1, Brandon Jenkins (13.2 ppg., 6.5 rebs., 5.0 asts., .382 3-pt.%)
G, #20, Rion Rayfield (15.2 pts., 2.8 rebs., 4.9 asts., .424 3-pt.%)
G, #22, Damon Ellison (10.7 pts., 3.6 rebs., 1.7 asts., .486 fg%)
Tampa Probable Starters:
F, #25, Glyn Hunter (6.1 pts., 3.2 rebs., .510 fg%)
F, #32, Callum Townsend (8.2 pts., 4.2 rebs., .350 3-pt.%)
G, #3, Rashad Callaway (18.4 pts., 4.1 rebs., 5.5 asts., .367 3-pt.%)
G, #24, Ashton Graham (8.6 pts., 4.1 rebs.)
G, #35, Anthony Griffis (15.9 pts., 5.0 rebs., .867 ft%)
SERIES HISTORY... Florida Southern is 85-70 all-time against Tampa, and has won seven straight in the series for the first time since winning eight in a row during the late 1950's. Current head coach Linc Darner is 8-3 against Tampa in his career. In this year's first meeting, the Moccasins won 81-67, with Rion Rayfield scoring 24 points, and Brandon Jenkins and Damon Ellison each scoring 17. The Mocs were without their leading scorer, Terry Jenkins, in that game. Tampa got 16 points and 17 rebounds from Fred Woods, but the Spartans' leading scorer, Rashad Callaway, was held to just two-of-15 shooting for the night, and the Spartans shot just 33 percent as a team.
ABOUT FLORIDA SOUTHERN... The Moccasins will be playing their final regular season home game on Wednesday night, but a win against the Spartans means they'll play at least one postseason game in Jenkins Field House. The top four teams in the SSC standings host first-round games in the conference tournament on Wednesday, March 2, and with the Florida Southern women's team having already secured one, the men are now trying to make that night a doubleheader. After their 75-67 win over 18th-ranked Rollins on Saturday, the Moccasins are now 14-2 at home this year, 7-0 in conference play, and have won 16 straight SSC home games dating back to 2009. That's three short of the team record for consecutive home-court SSC wins, set from 1984-88. The Mocs are still hoping for more home games beyond next week too, as they're currently ranked No. 3 in the South Region, with a new poll being announced late Wednesday afternoon.
The league's highest scoring team has four players scoring in double figures for the season, with both Rion Rayfield and Terry Jenkins scoring 15.2 points per game to lead the Moccasins. Jenkins has been coming off the bench in recent games, though he still led the Mocs with 20 points in the win over Rollins. Jenkins' scoring average is also somewhat skewed by two games in which he played a total of eight minutes and scored zero points, and he needs another 38 points to reach 1,000 for his career (combining IPFW and Florida Southern). He and Rayfield rank fourth and fifth respectively in the SSC in 3-point shooting percentage, and Cameron Wooten is sixth. Brandon Jenkins gives Florida Southern four of the 12 players in the SSC in that department, and the Moccasins rank fifth in Division II with a .408 percentage as a team. They're also seventh with a .784 free throw percentage, currently the best in team history.
ABOUT TAMPA... The Spartans have already secured their 17th 20-win season under Richard Schmidt, and are trying to increase their chances of playing in their 17th NCAA Tournament as well. They were ranked No. 5 in last week's regional poll and won both of their games last week. They've also beaten every team in the conference at least once this year except for Florida Southern and Florida Tech, which represent their final two games of the regular season. Earlier this year, it was Florida Southern that handed Tampa its first loss of the season after a program-best 16-0 start. The Spartans had their worst 3-point shooting night of the season in that game (6-for-34, 18%), their lowest free throw percentage of the season (54%), and their second lowest field goal percentage (33%). Overall, the Spartans have attempted more 3-pointers than any team in the league, accounting for 42% of their total field goal attempts.
Tampa is led by 2-time First Team All-SSC point guard Rashad Callaway, who is third in the league in scoring (18.4 ppg.), and first in both assists (5.5 avg.) and steals (2.1 avg.). The senior also shoots 37% from 3-point range (55-for-150) and 81% from the line (149-for-284), and needs another 101 points to reach the 2,000 mark for his career. In his last two games against the Moccasins, however, Callaway is only three-for-24 from the floor with a total of 15 points; he scored 29 in his last visit to Jenkins Field House though, a 95-89 overtime win by the Mocs last year. Tampa's second leading scorer is JC transfer Anthony Griffis, who is also the Spartans' second leading rebounder, and the league's second leading free throw shooter (.867). Callum Townsend is second on the team in 3-point shooting (48-for-137, .350). Tampa played the first semester without Fred Woods, but since returning, the senior forward is averaging 12.1 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game. He's played in 14 games overall, with four starts.
A free live video webcast of Wednesday's game will be available at http://fsc.nmtvsports.com/
Live stats for Wednesday's game will be available at http://www.flsouthern.edu/athletics/mens/livestats/xlive.htm
