Box Score BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Florida Southern used a strong first half offensive performance and five players in double figures to open the 2012-13 season with an impressive 86-75 victory over Stillman College in a South Region contest at State Fair Arena.
With the win, the Moccasins snap a two-game losing skid in season openers and improves to 62-24 all-time in openers in school history. Stillman fell to 0-2 on the season.
The Mocs, who finished the game shooting 54 percent from the field and 43 percent from the 3-point, outscored the Tigers, 52-39 in the first half after shooting 61 percent from the floor and 57 percent from long distance.
"It was a good win for our team against a very good Stillman team," Mocs head coach Linc Darner said. "We came on the road, handled their pressure and their runs late in the game and that was the difference."
Another difference in the game was the Mocs ability to force turnovers as the Tigers finished the game with 24, including 15 in the first half that led to 17 Moc points. For the game, Stillman committed 24 turnovers that led to 28 points for the Mocs. FSC finished the game with 17 turnovers, had 16 steals and held a 46-18 edge in the points in the paint.
"I thought our defense did a great job at creating turnovers tonight," said Darner, who improved to 5-2 in season openers.
Senior forward Brett Bailey (Davie, Fla.) paced the Mocs offensive attack with 22 points, including 12 in the second half, while junior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.) scored 15 points and added nine rebounds. Sophomore guard Cameron Vines (Columbus, Ohio) added 13 points, while senior guard Seth Evans (Marseilles, Ill.) had 11 points and a career-high five steals and sophomore guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) tallied 10 points, five boards and four steals in the win.
In the first half, the Mocs scored the game's first seven points, before Stillman answered with an 11-0 run to take an 11-7 lead with 15:06 left in the opening half. Following that run, the Mocs used an 18-2 run over a span of eight minutes to take a 29-20 lead with 7:53 remaining. After the three-pointer by Markeith Madison stopped FSC's run, the Mocs used an 18-9 run to push out to a 47-32 advantage.
The Tigers used a 5-0 run to pull within 47-37 with 2:27 left in the half, before Lane hit a trey and Bailey hit a lay-up with seven seconds left to give the Mocs a 52-39 halftime lead.
FSC extended its first half lead to as much as 20 points just a little over four minutes into the second half thanks to a lay-up by Bailey, before the Tigers used a 13-0 run to cut the Mocs lead to 61-54 with 12:46 left in the game following a back-to-back baskets from Ladarius Rhone.
The Mocs, though, responded with a quick 9-0 spurt aided by three consecutive baskets by Bailey to push its lead to 70-54 with 8:58 left in the game. FSC's lead would never dip below 10 points the rest of the game as the Tigers would only get as close as 11 points six times over the final seven-plus minutes."
Stillman was paced by D'uanaway Barnes, who scored 21 points off the bench, while Rhone added 16 points and nine boards and Madison chipped in with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Tigers, who ended the Mocs 2010-11 season with a 92-86 win in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II South Regional in Huntsville, Ala., finished the game by shooting 37 percent from the field and 33 percent from long distance. Additionally, they outrebounded the Mocs, 41-37.
FSC will return to the court on Tuesday, Nov. 20 as they host Puerto Rico-Bayamon in a 7:30 p.m. game at Jenkins Field House.
