Box Score
LAKELAND - Florida Southern shook off the rust of an 18-day layoff here Saturday evening by posting an impressive 96-70 victory over Barry in Sunshine State Conference action at Jenkins Field House.
The game was the first home conference game of the season for the Moccasins and their first game in 2013 as they hadn't played since picking up a 92-80 home win over Johnson C. Smith to close out the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule on Dec. 18.
With the win, the Mocs improved to 9-1 overall on the season and 2-0 in the SSC and also extended its win streak to seven straight games and its homecourt win streak to six straight games.
"I thought once we got going, we played really well tonight," Mocs head coach Linc Darner said. "It was a good win for us. I thought the big key in the game was making them (Barry) play the way we wanted them too."
The Mocs showed a little rust early on as the Buccaneers (6-4 overall, 1-1 SSC) jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the game's opening three-plus minutes. Barry, who opened SSC play with an 86-80 overtime win on Wednesday over Florida Tech in Miami Shores, pushed its lead to as much as eight points on two occassions in the opening nine minutes of the game. The Bucs final eight-point lead came with 11:06 left in the half following two free throws by Bryan Van Cott. Van Cott's two free throws gave the Bucs a 20-12 lead.
Following those two free throws, the Mocs used a 14-4 run capped by two free throws from junior forward Lamar McKnight (Bedford, Ohio) to give FSC a 26-24 lead with 7:02 left in the opening half. After a three-pointer by Justin McCoy gave Barry a 27-26 lead, the Mocs closed out the first half on a 19-9 run to take a 45-35 lead at the half. The run was keyed by six points from senior guard Seth Evans (Marseilles, Ill.) and capped by a lay-up from sophomore guard Cameron Vines (Columbus, Ohio) right before the halftime buzzer.
The Mocs win on Saturday was keyed by the play of its bench as the bench scored 54 of the Mocs 96 points in the win. Senior forward Brett Bailey (Davie, Fla.) was the main cog off the Mocs bench as he scored 20 points and pulled down seven rebounds, while sophomore guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) tallied 17 points and had a career-high tying five steals for the game.
"I thought our bench came in and played well," said Darner, who improved to 10-5 all-time against Barry. "Brett played like the Brett Bailey from last year. The break really helped him out."
While the Mocs bench finished with 54 points in the win, Evans led the way offensively as he finished with 21 points. It marked his third straight 20-plus point outing and the fourth time this season he has scored at least 20 points in a game.
It was the play of Evans, Capers and Bailey in the second half that helped the Mocs push its lead to as much as 35 points in the second half following a three-pointer by junior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.) with 5:22 left in the game. Lane's trey gave the Mocs a 93-58 lead. Evans, who entered the game as the Mocs leading scorer on the season at 16.6 points per game, finished with just eight points before fouling out late in the contest.
"Cameron (Vines), Tyler (Kelly) and Kevin (Capers) really gave us good minutes off the bench, especially with Dom (Lane) battling foul trouble all night," said Darner, who is now 138-61 in his seventh season with the Mocs.
In the second half, Barry pulled within 49-45 following a lay-up by Aaron Martin with 16:48 left, before the Mocs used a 30-8 run capped by lay-up from Vines with 9:46 remaining to push out to a 79-53 lead. After McCoy hit a free throw to stop the Mocs run, FSC used a 14-4 run to push out to its 35 point cushion.
Another of the big keys in Saturday's win was the Mocs defense as they forced Barry into 22 turnovers that led to a 22-10 edge in points off turnovers. 13 of those 22 turnovers came in the first half. The Mocs finished with just 12 turnovers as they entered the game fifth in NCAA Division II in turnover margin at +8.4.
In addition, the Mocs also held a 47-40 edge on the glass, including Vines collecting a career-high tying and game-high nine rebounds. FSC also outscored the Bucs, 50-16 in the paint.
Martin and Filip Toric led the way for Barry with 15 points apiece, while McCoy added 14 points and Magne Fivelstad chipped in with 10 points and seven boards in the loss.
For the game, the Mocs shot 47 percent from the field, but were just 4-for-26 (15 percent) from the 3-point line and held Barry 29 percent shooting from the floor and 35 percent shooting from the 3-point line.
Both teams shot well from the free throw line as they combined for 63 attempts on the night. The Mocs were 20-for-26 (77 percent) and Barry was 30-for-37 (81 percent) at the charity stripe.
The Mocs will hit the road for two key SSC match-ups next week as they open the week with a 7:30 p.m. contest on Wednesday, Jan. 9 at Saint Leo (9-2 overall, 2-0 SSC), before traveling to Fort Lauderdale for a 4 p.m. game on Saturday, Jan. 12 at Nova Southeastern (7-3 overall, 1-1 SSC).
"We have a really tough game on Wednesday at Saint Leo," the Moc coach said about Saint Leo, who was tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the SSC title. "They can match us at the guard position and not many teams can do that.
"They are as good as anyone in the country."
