Box Score
LAKELAND - Florida Southern closed the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule here Sunday afternoon by posting a wild 106-90 victory over Tuskegee in non-conference action at Jenkins Field House.
The victory improved the fourth-ranked Moccasins to 12-0 on the season and extended its regular season win streak in non-conference games to 17 straight and upped its homecourt win streak to 10 consecutive games dating to last season. The 12-0 start to the season is the ninth in school history and the first since the 2009-10 squad opened the season by winning its first 13 games.
Sunday's game was a wild affair as the two teams combined to shoot 75 free throws, including shooting a combined 52 foul shots in the second half as a total of 51 fouls were called in the game. Tuskegee, who fell to 3-6 with the loss, shot 30 free throws in the second half, while FSC shot 22 after halftime.
Along with going to the free throw a total of 75 times in the game, the teams also combined to score 119 points after halftime as FSC tallied a season-high 62 points in the second half and Tuskegee scored 57. The 90 points allowed by the Mocs were the most allowed in a game this season and the most since Western Washington scored 96 in last season's NCAA Division II Elite Eight quarterfinal game.
"Tuskegee is a good team. We knew they would make a run and once they started pressing, we got careless with the basketball," Mocs head coach Linc Darner said. "22 turnovers is way too many for us. We need to do a better job at taking care of the ball."
The Mocs, who led 44-33 at the half thanks to 57 percent shooting from the field, led by as much as 21 points in the second half, until the Golden Tigers used an 8-0Â run to trim a 17 point deficit (93-76)Â to nine points at 93-84Â following a free throw by Kevin May with 3:13 left in the game.
FSC, though, would respond by closing the game on a 13-7 run thanks to six points from junior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) and key lay-up by senior guard Frank Adams (Stone Mountain, Ga.) to halt's TU's scoring run. Adams' lay-up gave the Mocs a 95-84 lead with three minutes left in the game.
Battle finished the game with 16 points and six rebounds, including scoring eight of those points in the second half. Battle's lay-up with 1:47 left in the game pushed the Mocs over the century mark for the second time this season.
"I thought Stephen really played good tonight. We've been telling him to be more aggressive and I thought tonight he was much more aggressive," the Mocs coach said following his 168th win as FSC's coach.
Five Moccasins scored in double figures for the game led by senior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.), who finished with a career-high 30 points and added seven rebounds. With the 30 points, Lane became the 39th FSC player in school history to eclipse the 1,000 career point mark a feat he achieved on a three-pointer at the 9:53 mark of the first half. In his three-plus seasons as a Moc, Lane has now scored 1,020 career points and is 35th on the school's all-time scoring chart. In addition, he becomes the second Moccasin this season to go over 1,000 career points as junior guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) accomplished the feat earlier this season against North Alabama.
"Dom played a great game tonight. He hit some big shots and got us going in the second half we needed a lift," the Mocs coach added. "It is a great honor to score 1,000 points in a career and we have had two guys, Kevin and Dom, do it this season."
Lane scored 17 of his 30 point in the second half, including nine of the Mocs first 17 points out of the locker room to open the second half. His scoring spurt helped turn the nine-point halftime lead to 18 points at 61-43 following a trey by Lane with 15:08 left in the game. The lead would eventually balloon to as much as 21 points two times in the game. The first time was one a three-pointer by sophomore guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) with 13:35 left and the other was following a lay-up by Williams nearly a minute later.
Following Williams' lay-up, the Golden Tigers used a 17-13 run capped by a lay-up from Graham Olatunji to pull within 81-65 with 8:35 left in the game. The Mocs, though, would respond with a lay-up by Battle to push its lead to 83-65. TU would answer with a 10-4 run capped by a three-pointer from Keith Winn, Jr., to drop FSC's lead to 87-75 with 5:58 remaining.
The Mocs would answer again with a 6-1 run keyed by four points from Lane to push its lead back out to 17 points at 93-76, before Tuskegee made its run to cut the deficit to nine points.
In addition to Lane and Battle, junior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) also tallied a career-high as he finished with 16 points and had six assists, while Capers added 13 points and had six assists before fouling out late in the game. The other Moc in double figures was Adams as he scored 11 points for his sixth double-digit scoring effort of the season.
Tuskegee was paced by 21 points from Olatunji, while Richard Dixon added 18 points off the bench, including scoring 11 of those points after halftime. Javier McKinney scored 15 points and Elliot Dean finished with 14 points and six boards. All but two of Dean's points were scored in the second half.
The Golden Tigers jumped out to a 15-9 lead in the opening five minutes of the game, before the Mocs used a 19-4 run capped by a three-pointer from Lane to take a 25-19 lead with 9:53 left in the opening half. The Mocs lead would grow to 10 points following a dunk by Lane with 5:28 left, before TU used a 7-3 run to pull within 39-33.
FSC would score the final five points of the first half to go into halftime with its 44-33 lead.
For the game, FSC shot a season-best 66 percent from the field, including connecting on 73 percent (12-for-20) of its second half shots. The Mocs also shot 33 percent from the 3-point line and finished 26-for-40 (65 percent) at the line, including going 15-for-22 at the line in the second half.
Tuskegee shot 42 percent from the field and 31 percent from the 3-point line for the game and was 21-for-35 (60 percent) at the line, including 20-for-30 at the line in the second half.
The Mocs held a 36-35 edge on the glass and Lane pulled down a game-high seven boards, but committed a season-high 22 turnovers that led to 25 Golden Tiger points. Tuskegee had 18 turnover for the game.
FSC will now take now take 12 days off, including seven days off (Dec. 23-29) mandated by the NCAA as part of its "Life in Balance" initiative that was established a few years ago, before returning to the court on Saturday, Jan. 4 as they host Barry (9-0) in a 7:30 p.m. Sunshine State Conference contest. It will mark the first home conference of the season for the Mocs as they opened league play on Dec. 7 at Nova Southeastern.
"Barry is undefeated on the season and is playing really well so far this season," Darner added. "I think we’ve played a really good schedule up to this point that has helped prepare us for conference play when we come back after the holidays.â€
