Box Score BOCA RATON - Desperately needing a win to stay alive in the NCAA postseason race, Florida Southern got one Saturday at Lynn, and may have gotten a little bit of help along the way.
Most of the help though came from the Moccasins' own Seth Evans. Scoring 17 of his game-high 26 points in the final 12 minutes, Evans helped bring Florida Southern from behind for a 79-68 victory at Lynn with two regular season games remaining.
Florida Southern (15-9, 8-7 Sunshine State Conference) came into the week ranked No. 10 in the NCAA South Region rankings, and took a hit on Wednesday with a 75-72 loss to Saint Leo. With eight teams selected for the South Region Tournament, a second straight loss could have been crushing, but the Mocs re-grouped for their second win of the season over Lynn, their sixth straight in the series, and their fifth straight in Boca Raton. They also saw Rollins, which was No. 9 in the regional rankings, lose at home to Florida Tech, after No. 8 North Alabama also lost on Thursday. UNA did, however, win on Saturday, so it remains to be seen if all of that was enough to keep Florida Southern in the top 10, with games remaining against Tampa and Palm Beach Atlantic before the SSC Tournament.
On Saturday, Evans was back in the starting lineup for the first time since January 11, and responded with his eighth 20-point game of the season, and his third game in the last four with at least 25. The junior guard went 7-for-14 from the floor, and all seven of those field goals were 3-pointers. With Evans going 7-for-10, the Mocs were 11-for-21 as team, the most 3-point field goals they’ve made all season. The Knights were just 5-for-22 after entering the game with a league-leading .357 percentage.
Evans hit his first 3-pointer in the first minute of the game, and after baskets by Garrett Putman and Brett Bailey, along with another 3-pointer by Tyler Kelly, the Mocs had a 10-5 lead. The Knights (13-13, 6-8) then rattled off seven straight points and held the Mocs scoreless for more than five minutes before Evans eventually gave FSC another lead with a 3-pointer at the 8:44 mark. It was one of nine lead changes in the first half, and the 10-5 lead by the Mocs was the only time it was greater than three for either team.
Lynn held a 30-29 lead at halftime, and used a 9-0 run early in the second half to push that up to 42-33. Josh Garcia made two of the Knights' five 3-pointers during that spurt, but they were the only ones made by Lynn during the entire second half.
The Knights still led by nine with 13:26 remaining when Dominic Lane closed the gap for Florida Southern. After making a 3-point shot to get the Mocs within six, Lane came up with a steal on defense, took a quick feed from Putman, and converted another 3-point shot to make the score 50-47.
When the Knights' Preye Preboye scored to make it a 5-point game, the Mocs got consecutive jumpers from Cameron Vines to trim the deficit to one. A steal by Vines then led to another 3-pointer by Evans with 11:14 to play, and after Bo Jukic's layup briefly put Lynn on top again, Evans knocked down another triple to give the Mocs a 57-54 lead. They never trailed again after that.
The Mocs didn't pull away though until they out-scored the Knights 12-3 in the final four minutes of the game. Evans made one of his 3-pointers during that stretch and also made a pair of free throws, while Kelly and Kevin Capers combined to go 5-for-6 from the line. The Knights failed to make a shot during that same 4-minute time frame after shooting nearly 50 percent prior to that.
In addition Evans' 26 points, the Mocs got 15 points from Capers off the bench, and 11 from Lane. Capers was 11-for-12 at the free throw line and also had four assists, while Lane was 3-for-6 from long range and added three steals.
Lynn was paced by Jeremy Lampkin, who scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Garcia had 17 points, and Preboye scored 14. Garcia was 5-for-11 from long range, but the rest of the team was 0-for-11.
Florida Southern will play its final Sunshine State Conference game of the season on Wednesday when it hosts Tampa at 7:30 p.m. The Moccasins will go into that game trailing both Saint Leo and Rollins by half a game in the SSC standings, and must jump ahead of at least one of them to secure a first-round home game in the SSC Tournament.
