Box Score
LAKELAND - Florida Southern extended its homecourt winning streak to nine straight games here Wednesday evening as the 14th-ranked Moccasins posted a 91-65 victory over Tampa in Sunshine State Conference action at Jenkins Field House.
The win, which improved the Mocs record to 13-2 overall and 5-1 in the SSC, was sealed thanks to a 26-10 run over a span of seven minutes in the second half that pushed the Mocs lead from 57-50 to 83-60 following a lay-up by senior guard Seth Evans (Marseilles, Ill.) with 2:48 left in the contest. During the run, Evans hit back-to-back three-pointers and scored 10 of his team's 26 points.
FSC's run came after the Spartans (13-5, 1-5 SSC) cut a 10-point Mocs lead to 57-50 following a three-pointer by Stefon Barfield with 9:32 left in the game. Barfield's trey capped a 7-4 run by UT.
Following the 26-10 run, the Spartans used two free throws by Jon Riles to pull within 83-62 with 2:36 left, but the Mocs answered with an 8-0 run capped by a three-pointer from freshman walk-on guard Blake Lowman (Brooksville, Fla.) with 43 seconds remaining. In fact, the Mocs closed the with back-to-back treys as junior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.) added a trey with 1:43 left to give the Mocs an 88-62 lead. FSC outscored UT, 48-28 in the second half.
Lane led the way for the Mocs with 20 points and 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Lane scored 13 of his 20 points in the second half. In addition to Lane, Evans tallied 15 points to extend his double figure scoring streak to eight straight games, while senior forward Brett Bailey (Davie, Fla.) scored 12 points and sophomore guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) had 10 points to push his double-digit scoring streak to six consecutive games.
Wednesday's win was the Mocs 11th straight in the series over the Spartans and also its fourth consecutive victory overall on the season since suffering a 71-63 SSC loss at Saint Leo on Jan. 9.
Tampa, who has now lost five of its last six games since opening the season with a 12-0 record, jumped out to a 14-9 lead just five minutes into the game. That lead, though, was shortlived as the Mocs used an 18-5 scoring spree to take a 27-17 lead with 9:05 left in the opening half. The run was keyed by six points from Capers, who scored eight of his 10 points in the first half.
Following the Mocs run, UT answered with an 11-7 run capped by a lay-up from Riles with 4:04 left to push within 34-28. FSC would respond with a 7-1 run capped by a lay-up from freshman guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) to extend its lead to 41-29 with a little over three minutes remaining in the half.
UT would close the first half on an 8-2 run to drop the Mocs lead to 43-27 at the half.
Da'Markco Foster led the Spartans with 19 points and nine rebounds, while Riles added 15 points in the loss. Anthony Griffis and Austin Rettig each scored nine points for UT on the night. Griffis came into the game as the No. 6 scorer in the SSC as he was averaging 15.2 points per game on the season.
On the night, the Mocs shot 50 percent from the field and 44 percent from the 3-point line, while Tampa finished shooting 35 percent from the floor asnd 18 percent (3-for-17) from downtown.
Both teams finished with 39 rebounds, but the Mocs forced UT into 19 turnovers that led to 22 points. FSC leads NCAA Division II in turnover margin at +8.8 this season. The Mocs committed just 12 turnovers and dished out 25 assists on 35 made baskets as Evans recorded a game-high seven assists.
The Mocs will now embark on a two-game road swing in SSC play as they open the road swing on Saturday, Jan. 26 with a 4 p.m. game at Florida Tech, before traveling to Winter Park for a 7:30 p.m. match-up with Rollins on Wednesday, Jan. 30.
