Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern opened the home portion of its 2012-13 schedule here Tuesday evening with an 86-62 non-conference victory over Puerto Rico-Bayamon in front of nearly 700 fans in Jenkins Field House.
The Moccasins, who improved to 2-0 overall on the season, used four double figure scorers and strong start to outlast the Vaqueros, who were playing their third game in five days against Sunshine State Conference foes.
FSC, who is ranked 22nd in this week's first regular season NABC/Division II Coaches' Poll, jumped out to a 19-2 lead just a little over six minutes into the contest and led 39-24 at the half, before UPR-Bayamon opened the second half on a 16-11 run to pull within 50-40 with 13:24 left in the contest.
"I thought we played really well at the beginning and were able to get a big lead," Mocs head coach Linc Darner said. "We played in spurts. Bayamon has a good team and their guards are really good."
In Tuesday's game, 12 of the 14 players that saw action scored and 10 of those 12 players recorded at least one assist as the Mocs finished with 20 assists on 31 made baskets.
Junior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.) and senior guard Seth Evans (Marseilles, Ill.) each scored 13 points, while junior forward Lamar McKnight (Bedford, Ohio) added 11 points and sophomore guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) chipped in with 10 points in the win.
"I was pleased we were able to use our depth tonight. We have 12 guys that can play so our depth is a definite strength this year," said Darner, who improved to 6-1 in home openers as the Mocs coach.
Following Bayamon's 16-11 spurt in the second half that pulled the Vaqueros (1-4 on the season) within 10 points, the Mocs used a quick 7-2 spurt aided by back-to-back buckets from senior forward Brett Bailey (Davie, Fla.) and capped by a lay-up from McKnight to extend its lead to 57-42 with 11:14 left in the game. Bailey finished with nine points on the night.
UPRB, though, wouldn't go away as they used a 12-3 run to push within 64-54 with 7:47 left in the game following a dunk by Hector Garcia. The run came after UPRB's Carlos Ramos was ejected after drawing back-to-back technical fouls. Ramos, who finished with a game-high 16 points, entered the game averaging nearly 17 points per game and scored 32 last Friday at Florida Tech.
Following Garcia's dunk, Lane hit a three-pointer 10 seconds later to jump start a 16-0 run that pushed the Mocs lead to 80-54 with 2:31 left in the contest. During the run, Lane scored four points and sophomore guard Cameron Vines (Columbus, Ohio), who scored nine points for the game, capped the run with a trey. UPRB scored six straight points to pull within 80-60, but freshman walk-on guards Alex McClanahan (Maitland, Fla.) and Blake Lowman (Brooksville, Fla.) capped the scoring with three-pointers.
"It was great for both Alex and Blake to come in the game and hit those shots," the Mocs coach added.
In addition to Ramos' 16 points, Garcia scored 11 points and had five boards in the loss for the Vaqueros.
For the game, FSC shot 50 percent from the field and 47 percent from the 3-point line. It was the second straight game the Mocs shot over 50 percent from the field as they connected on 54 percent of their shots in the season opener last Thursday against Stillman. UPRB shot 46 percent from the field and 35 percent from long distance, but connected on only 43 percent (6-for-14) of its free throws. The Mocs, who were a perfect 9-for-9 from the line in the first half, shot 75 percent (15-for-20) at the line on the night.
The Mocs forced UPRB into 19 turnovers that led to 28 points and outrebounded the Vaqueros, 34-33 as Lane led the way with seven boards.
FSC will return to action on Friday, Nov. 23 as they host the four-team Ledger Media Group/Terrace Hotel Classic at Jenkins Field House. The Mocs will open the event at 7:30 p.m. on Friday against St. Cloud State, before facing Mary [ND] on Saturday, Nov. 24 at 7:30 p.m. St. Joseph's [IN] is the other team in the tourney as they open things up on Friday at 5:15 p.m. against Mary, before meeting St. Cloud State on Saturday at 5:15 p.m.
