Cannon Dominates As Mocs Reach SSC Title Game

A dominating second-half performance by Sunshine State Conference Player of the Year Emma Cannon powered the top-seeded Moccasins past Eckerd, 80-60, in the semifinals of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament at Melbourne Saturday.

The win was FSC's ninth straight and puts the Moccasins into the SSC championship game Sunday at 1 p.m. against Florida Tech, which upset second-seeded Tampa, 75-62, in the other semifinal game.  It's the Moccasins' first trip to the SSC title game since the 2002-03 season, which is also the last time FSC won the tournament championship.  The game will be televised live by Bright House Sports Network (Channel 47).

Cannon finished with 24 points, one short of her season high, and tied the FSC single-game record with 21 rebounds.  She now has 20 double-doubles for the season and 12 consecutive games with a double-double.

With 9:27 left in the first half, Cannon picked up her second personal foul and coach Jarrod Olson elected to pull her for the rest of the half.  The Moccasins, who had scored the game's first eight points, found themselves trailing at halftime, 32-30, as Cannon had five points and five rebounds.

The second half was a completely different story, as Cannon played the entire 20 minutes, scoring 19 points and collecting 16 rebounds to lead the 24th-ranked Moccasins to their 24th win of the season in 28 games.  Cannon scored the Moccasins' first basket of the second half with just 12 seconds gone to tie the game at 32-32, then Michaela Hawley's layup at the 19:11 mark put FSC in front and that's where the Moccasins stayed the rest of the game.

Freshman Taylor Maldonado had a key role in the Moccasins' second-half surge as well, scoring all 15 of her points off the bench in the second period.  It's the 11th time this season she has come off the bench to score in double figures.

After shooting just 33.3 percent from the field in the first half, the Moccasins shot 51.4 percent in the second half and finished the game at 43.1 percent.   Eckerd shot 38.7 percent in the first half, but struggled in the second half, shooting just 28.6 percent.  Due in large part to Cannon, the Moccasins won the rebounding battle 50-35.

Tanja Speaker and Hawley each scored 11 for FSC and Megan Dzikas added 10.  Ashley Lutz led Eckerd (17-11) with 23 and Lotte Tobiasen added 14.

FSC and Florida Tech split their two regular season SSC games.  The Moccasins won 78-57 at Lakeland Jan. 2 and the Panthers won 75-68 Feb. 2 at Melbourne.