Mocs Conclude Regular Season By Hosting Rollins for Senior Night

LAKELAND - Florida Southern will conclude the 2012-13 regular season here Saturday evening by hosting Rollins in a 7:30 p.m. Sunshine State Conference match-up at Jenkins Field House.

Prior to Saturday's game, the 14th-ranked Moccasins will honor its five seniors in a pregame ceremony. The Mocs five seniors are forward Brett Bailey (Davie, Fla.), guard Seth Evans (Marseilles, Ill.), forward Jon Gardner (Anderson, Ind.), guard Jay Hubble (Pendleton, Ind.) and forward Brant Leitnaker (Lancaster, Ohio). Hubble is in his fifth season as as Moc after being granted a medical hardship after sitting out last season due to injury, while Bailey and Gardner are both in their fourth seasons at FSC. Evans is in his second year with the Mocs after transferring from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and Leitnaker is playing his senior campaign with the Mocs after transferring from Indiana State University.

Saturday's game is an important one for both squads as the Moccasins, who are 20-5 overall and 11-4 in the SSC after having its three-game losing skid in SSC play snapped on Wednesday with its 77-57 victory at Tampa, are playing for a right to tie for the regular season league title, while Rollins is playing to improve its seeding in the next week's SSC Tournament.

FSC comes into play on Saturday a game behind Saint Leo (12-4) in the league standings and with a victory over Rollins, FSC can earn a share of the title and claim the No. 2 seed in next week's SSC Tournament as SLU owns the tiebreaker by virtue of winning both regular season meetings against the Mocs, while Rollins, who is 17-8 overall and 9-6 in the SSC, can improve its seeding with a win and losses by Eckerd and Florida Tech on Saturday. The Tars are currently in fourth place in the SSC standings.

The official pairings for the SSC Tournament will be announced by the league office following the conclusion of all the games on Saturday evening. The tournament will run from March 6-10 at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee with the men's teams playing its opening round game on Wednesday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m., its quarterfinal games are scheduled for Friday, March 8 (12, 2:30, 5 and 7:30 p.m.). The semifinals will be on Saturday, March 9 at 5 and 7:30 p.m. and the championship game is slated for 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 10. The winner of the SSC Tournament earns the league's automatic bid to the NCAA D-II Tournament. 

Saturday's meeting is the 167th all-time meeting between the two schools and the second this season between the two rivals. The Mocs lead the all-time series, 115-51 and have won seven of the last 11 games in the series, including posting a 97-74 win in the team's earlier meeting this season in Winter Park on Jan. 30.
FSC holds a 56-18 edge in Lakeland. Mocs head coach Linc Darner is 9-7 all-time against Rollins, including being 4-2 in Lakeland. 

Rollins, who was picked to finish fourth in the Preseason SSC poll, comes into Saturday's game as one of the top offensive and defensive teams in the league as the Tars are fourth in the league in scoring (71.1 points per game) and is second in scoring defense (65.5 points per game) and fourth in scoring margin (+5.6). In addition, Rollins leads the league in field goal percentage (46.3 percent) and is second in both 3-point field goal percentage (37.8 percent) and 3-pointers made per game (9.3). Defensively, the Tars are third in the SSC in field goal percentage defense (41.7 percent), is tied for fourth in 3-point field goal defense (35.4 percent) and leads the league and is 28th nationally in blocked shots as they average 4.4 blocks per game.

In the team's meeting earlier this season, the Mocs hit a season-high tying 14 3-pointers to earn a 97-74 win over the then 14th-ranked Tars in Winter Park and take over sole possession of first place in the SSC standings. Both teams entered the game tied for first place in the league standings.

The Mocs took control of the game midway through the first half as they used a 22-4 run to turn a 10-9 lead into a 32-13 advantage following a trey by junior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.) with 8:50 left in the opening half. The Mocs lead grew to as much as 20 points with six minutes remaining, before Rollins  closed the half on a 17-8 run to drop FSC's lead to 46-35 at the half.

Lane was one of four Mocs in double figures as he scored 22 points, while Evans added 17 points and Bailey chipped in with 15 points. Junior forward Lamar McKnight (Cleveland, Ohio) was the fourth Moc in double figures as he had 14 points in the win. Rollins was paced by Kyle McClanahan's 18 points, while Adam Allen had 13 points off the bench and Dave Diakite had 12 points and seven boards in the loss.

Rollins pulled within 48-42 in the opening two-plus minutes of the second half, but the Mocs used a 22-10 run to push its lead to 70-52 with 10:09 left. After Mitch Woods hit a trey to drop FSC's lead to 70-59 with 8:11 left, the Mocs would go on a 17-7 lead to push its lead to 87-66. The lead would grow to as much as 23 points three times in the final four minutes of the game.

For the game, the Mocs shot 52 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line and forced Rollins into 18 turnovers that led to 26 points. Rollins also shot the ball well as they hit 55 percent of its field goal attempts and shot 45 percent from the 3-point line and outrebounded the Moc, 32-28 in the loss.

Leading the way for the Mocs is McClanahan. McClanahan, who played for UF from 2008-11, is averaging 14.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game and is second in the SSC in both field goal percentage (56.8 percent) and 3-point percentage (46.8 percent) and third in free throw percentage (83.2 percent). In addition to McClanahan, Diakite is averaging 12.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game and Adam Allen, who played for the Gators from 2007-011, is averaging 10.6 points and is sixth in the SSC in 3-pointers made per game as he averages 2.2.

The Tars defense will once again be tested by a Moccasin offense that is seventh in Division II in scoring at 85.7 points per game and they have scored 75 or more points in 23 of 25 games and has scored 90 or more points in eight of its last 13 games and 11 times overall on the season. In addition to leading the league in scoring, the Mocs are also first in scoring margin (+11.6), second in field goal percentage (45.8 percent) and third in 3-pointers made (8.4 per game). FSC also leads the league in assists (18.0 per game), turnover margin (+6.9) and assist/turnover ratio (1.3) and is second in steals (11.2 per game). On defense, the Mocs are allowing 74.1 points per game and is second in the league in 3-point field goal defense as their opponents are shooting 32.1 percent from downtown.

Leading the charge offensively for the Mocs is Evans. Evans, who has scored in double figures in nine consecutive games, is averaging 15.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and has an assist/turnover ratio of 2.4, which is second-best in the SSC. Evans is shooting 43 percent from the field, 41 percent from the 3-point line and is second in the SSC in free throw shooting at 87.1 percent. In addition to Evans, Lane is second on the team in scoring as he averages 14.4 points per game and leads the team in rebounding at 6.2 boards per contest and had had a team-best three double-doubles.

Two other Mocs average in double figures as sophomore guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) is averaging 12.0 points per game off the bench and has reached double figures in 18 games this season, while Bailey, who became the 36th member of the school's 1,000 Point Club on Wednesday, is averaging 10.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and is shooting an SSC-best 59 percent from the field.

Live stats will be available here: http://fscmocs.athleticsite.net/livestats/mb/xlive.htm.

Live webcast and audio broadcast of the game will be available here: http://fscmocs.nmtvsports.com 

Complete Rollins Game Notes