Box Score
MELBOURNE â€" It’s unlikely the Florida Tech Panthers will win the Sunshine State Conference regular season title this year, but even if they don’t, they’re going to have a big say in who does. For the second time in the last three weeks, Florida Tech knocked off a team sitting in first place in the league standings, and this time it was Florida Southern on the wrong side of the score as the Panthers led the entire way in a 77-64 win over the Moccasins.
Florida Tech (13-7, 4-6) lost its first three conference games of the season, including a 54-35 game at Florida Southern on December 8. The Panthers have turned it around though in recent weeks, winning three of their last four, including a win over Rollins in addition to Wednesday night’s victory over Florida Southern (16-4, 7-3). It also improved the Panthers’ home record this year to 8-1, and it ended a 6-game winning streak for the Moccasins.
The Panthers more than doubled their point total from the last time they played the Moccasins, when they shot just 18 percent and scored only 35 points. They led 44-33 at halftime, were shooting 47 percent at that point, and had made four-of-seven from long range. Three of those 3-pointers came from Ashton McClairen, who scored 13 of her team-leading 18 points in the first half.
Florida Tech took a 10-2 lead in the first four minutes and led 21-11 before the Mocs began matching the Panthers point for point. A basket by Morgan Lamberg and 3-pointer by Sofie Lundberg got them within five with 9:29 remaining in the half, and the Mocs kept the gap between five and seven points for almost four minutes.
McClairen then hit a 3-pointer at the 5:33 mark to give Florida Tech a 32-23 lead before Sharnae Ivery scored a pair of buckets to push the lead to 11. A jumper by Jasmire Brown made it 38-23 and capped the Panthers’ 9-0 run.
Helped by 3-pointers from Megan Dzikas and Tracy Fosterling, as well as a basket by Taylor Maldonado, the Mocs again got the deficit back to seven with 1:46 to play before halftime. But McClairen would hurt them again with her third triple of the first half, and Kayk Wilson also hit one with under a minute to play to give Florida Tech it’s 11-point lead at the break.
Florida Tech missed its first six shots of the second half, but the Mocs were unable to take advantage and could get no closer than nine during that time. After the Panthers worked the lead back to 14 at 53-39, the Moccasins got four points from Michaela Hawley and a three-point play from Fosterling for seven straight points overall that got them within seven with 14:09 to play. The Panthers scored six straight after that, however, and led by double digits for nearly the rest of the night.
Hawley led the Moccasins with 23 points and eight rebounds, and also had five blocked shots and two steals. The senior forward was 9-for-12 from the field and 5-for-6 from the line. Maldonado was the only other Moccasin in double figures with 10 points, though Dzikas had nine points, six assists and five rebounds.
Florida Southern out-shot Florida Tech, 43 percent to 41 percent, but the Panthers used 22 Moccasin turnovers to score 25 points.
Florida Southern returns home for its next game on Saturday night as the Moccasins host Nova Southeastern at 5:30 p.m.
