Mocs Rebound, Posts Road SSC Win at Nova

FORT LAUDERDALE - Florida Southern showed little ill effect from its loss on Wednesday at Saint Leo here Saturday afternoon as the Moccasins used a strong first half to post a 78-68 Sunshine State Conference win over Nova Southeastern.

With the win, the Mocs improve to 10-2 overall on the season and 3-1 in the SSC, while Nova Southeastern fell to 8-4 overall and 1-2 in the SSC. 

In Saturday's win, the Mocs, who had its seven-game win streak snapped with its 71-63 loss Wednesday at Saint Leo, jumped out to a 41-26 lead in the first half and led by as much as 19 points in the second half, before holding off a strong rally by the Sharks to improve to 3-1 on the road and 2-1 on the road in SSC play.

The Sharks scored the game's first two points and led 17-11 just a little over seven minutes into the game, when the Mocs used a 16-0 run capped by a lay-up from sophomore guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) to take a 27-17 lead with 9:27 left in the game. The run began with a three-pointer from sophomore guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) and four straight points by junior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.) gave FSC an 18-17 lead they would never relinquish the remainder of the game.

NSU stopped the Mocs run with a free throw by Stian Berg at the 9:27 mark, before the Mocs closed out the half on a 14-8 run to take its 15 point lead at the half. In fact, the Mocs scored the final five points of the first half on a three-pointer by senior guard Seth Evans (Marseilles, Ill.) and a lay-up by Lane with 56 seconds remaining.

Evans led the way for the Mocs with 19 points, while Capers added 17 points off the bench in the win. Junior forward Lamar McKnight (Bedford, Ohio) had 12 points, including scoring nine points in the first half and Lane finished with game with 10 points and seven rebounds.

The Mocs pushed its lead to as much as 19 points in the first four minutes of the second half to take a 49-30 lead following a lay-up by senior forward Brett Bailey (Davie, Fla.), who was playing in his hometown. Bailey, who finished the game with nine points and a season-high 12 rebounds, scored seven of his nine points after halftime.

After the Mocs final 19 point lead at 51-32, the Sharks used a 22-11 run to pull within 62-54 following two free throws by Sean Mullan. Mullan finished the game with 14 points, including 11 points in the second half.

Lane, though, pushed the Mocs lead back up to 10 points at 64-54 following a lay-up with 6:45 remaining, before the Sharks made one more push as they used an 11-4 run to draw within 68-63 with 3:23 left in the game.

That would be as close as NSU would get as the Mocs closed the game on a 10-5 run to seal the victory, inclduing Evans and Capers combining to hit six straight free throws to seal the game's scoring.

For the game, FSC finished shooting 92 percent (12-for-13) at the foul line as Evans was 7-for-7 at the line and Capers was 2-for-2 at the charity stripe.

Brian Cahill led the way for the Sharks with 17 points, while Hollis added 14 points and 12 boards and Berg tallied 10 points in the loss.

The Mocs finished the game shooting 43 percent from the field, but were just 6-for-27 (22 percent) from the 3-point line, while NSU shot 40 percent from the field and 26 percent from long distance. The Mocs forced NSU into 18 turnovers that led to 27 points, including scoring 16 points off of 11 Shark turnovers in the first half, which negated a 40-36 edge on the glass by the Sharks.

FSC will return home to begin a three-game homestand. The Mocs will open the homestand with two games next week as they host Eckerd in a 7:30 p.m. SSC contest on Wednesday, Jan. 16, before facing Palm Beach Atlantic in a 4 p.m. non-conference game on Saturday, Jan. 19.