Box Score LAKELAND - No. 22 ranked Florida Southern rallied from a 20-point first half deficit to take a lead with less than one second left, only to suffer a heartbreaking 91-89 defeat on a half-court buzzer beater by St. Cloud State in its opening game of the 2012 FSC Ledger Media Group/Terrace Hotel Classic at Jenkins Field House.
The Moccasins, who fell to 2-1 on the season, appeared to have victory clinched when sophomore guard Cameron Vines (Columbus, Ohio) scored on a lob pass from fellow sophomore guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) with 0.4 seconds left on the clock to take an 89-88 lead. The Huskies, though, snatched victory from the Mocs as Kevin Levandoski hit a shot just behind the half court line as the buzzer sounded to send give the 22nd-ranked Mocs its first loss of the season.
"It was a good game tonight against two very good basketball teams. It was a tough way to lose a game, but it is what it is and we have to move on from it," Mocs head coach Linc Darner said following the contest.
Vines' lay-up in front of the basket came after the Mocs forced a turnover on an in-bounds play after Capers hit two free throws to push FSC within 88-87 with 1.2 seconds remaining. The lay-up capped a 6-1 run by the Mocs in a span of less than seven seconds.
It appeared that victory was not in the cards for Mocs on Friday as SCSU (2-0) used 55 percent shooting to take a 20-point lead with a little less than five minutes remaining in the first half. The Mocs, though, would close the opening half on a 12-3 run to go into halftime trailing 50-39.
"We could've folded in the first half as a basketball team, but we pulled together and played as a team and group," said Darner, who fell to 132-61 as the Mocs coach.
Capers was one of five Mocs to reach double figures as he finished with a season-high 21 points off the bench. In addition to Capers, Vines matched his career-high with 16 points, while senior forward Brett Bailey (Davie, Fla.) and senior guard Seth Evans (Marseilles, Ill.) each tallied 16 points and Bailey added nine boards in the loss. The final double-digit scorer was junior forward Lamar McKnight (Bedford, Ohio), who had 10 points and a career-high seven rebounds.
The Mocs scored the first three points of the second half on a trey by Evans, before SCSU went on an 11-7 run capped by a three-pointer from Conner Neihaus to extend its lead to 61-49 with 14:58 left in the game.
At that point, Capers started taking over the game as he scored on four consecutive possessions to push the Mocs within 63-57 at the 12:52 mark. The Mocs, though, weren't done as Vines hit a trey, which was followed up by a lay-up from McKnight and a fastbreak basket by junior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.) to give the Mocs 64-63 lead with 10:23 left in the game.
SCSU, who is now 1-1 all-time against the Mocs, responded with a 14-9 run to take a 77-73 lead following two free throws by Shaun Jensen with 3:51 remaining. Following the free throws, the Mocs used an 8-1 run keyed by six consecutive points from Evans and capped on a lay-up by Bailey to take an 81-78 lead with 2:02 left in the game.
The Huskies would tie the game 36 seconds later on a three-pointer by Damarius Cruz and then pushed its lead to 85-81 following four consecutive free throws by Theo Rothstein. The teams would then trade off hitting free throws until Cruz pushed the Huskies lead to 88-85 after hitting 1-of-2 free throws with four seconds left that set up Capers' two free throws to set up the exciting finish to game.
In the second half, the Mocs got 38 of its 50 points from Capers, Vines and Evans.
SCSU was paced by 21 points and nine rebounds from Rothstein, while Jensen added 16 points, five boards and five assists before fouling out with 3:30 left in the game. Levandoski and Cruz tallied 15 and 14 points off the bench respectively in the win.
"Their point guard (Jensen) is as good as we'll face all season," Darner added.
On the night, the Mocs finished shooting 48 percent from the field, but connected on just 25 percent (3-for-12) of its three-pointers, while SCSU finished shooting 46 percent from the field and 46 percent from long distance.
The Huskies held a 43-31 edge on the glass, which negated a 21-10 edge in points off turnovers for the Mocs. SCSU committed 15 turnovers in the game, including 11 in the second half. The Mocs had a season-low seven turnovers for the game.
FSC will conclude play in the 2012 Ledger Media Group/Terrace Hotel Classic on Saturday, Nov. 24 as they face the University of Mary at 7:30 p.m. Mary fell to 1-2 on the season after suffering a 65-64 loss to St. Joseph's (Ind.) in Friday's tournament opener. St. Joseph's will open Saturday's doubleheader at Jenkins Field House at 5:15 p.m. against St. Cloud State.
