Box Score With five players scoring in double-figures, including three of the four seniors on Senior Night, the Moccasins kept their Sunshine State Conference title hopes alive with an 86-75 win over Tampa Wednesday night, giving them their fourth consecutive 20-win season under coach Linc Darner.
Tampa scored the game's first basket, Brett Bailey's layup tied it at 2-2 and Rion Rayfield put the Moccasins in front to stay with the first of his five three-pointers in the game. The Moccasins had a 38-27 advantage at halftime and the Spartans never got closer than five points in the second half. Rayfield, who finished with a team-high 19 points that moved him into third place on the FSC career scoring list, nailed three straight three-pointers at the start of the second half that gave the Moccasins their biggest lead of the game, 47-31. Rayfield now has 1,782 careeer points to rank behind only John Ebeling (1979-82), who had 2,514, and Kris Kearney (1986-89), who had 1,869.
With the win, the Moccasins (20-7, 11-4 SSC) assured themselves of a home game in the first round of the SSC Men's Tournament next Wednesday night at 7:30 against an opponent to be determined after all of the SSC regular season games have been completed Saturday. The Mocs got some needed help from Florida Tech, as the Panthers knocked off first-place 77-66. Rollins is now 12-3 in the SSC with the Moccasins at 11-4.
In addition to the 19 points from Rayfield, seniors Brandon and Terry Jenkins each scored 14 points. Cameron Wooten, the fourth Moccasin senior, scored just five points, but had probably the most impressive basket of the game with a driving slam dunk that came with 1:23 remaining. Damon Ellison scored 17 points and Brett Bailey added 10.
Rashad Callaway led Tampa with 23 points.
With their combined 52 points against Tampa, the four Moccasin seniors raised their combined career point total to 4,924 points.
The Moccasins, ranked fourth in this week's South Region poll, wrap up the regular season Saturday with a 4 p.m. game at Fort Lauderdale against Nova Southeastern. Rollins plays at home Saturday against Lynn.
