Box Score
LAKELAND - Florida Southern used its homecourt edge to its advantage here Sunday evening as the eighth-ranked and top-seeded Moccasins used a strong first half and stingy second half defense to cruise past 17th-ranked and fourth-seed Saint Leo 84-65 in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament at Jenkins Field House.
With the victory, the Mocs, who run its win streak to seven straight games and improve to 26-5 on the year, advance to face ninth-ranked and No. 2 seeded Alabama-Huntsville in the region championship game on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. The Mocs will be seeking its ninth regional title and its first since 2000. SLU ended the season with a 22-8 record.
In Sunday's contest, the Mocs used a 12-0 run in the first half to turn an 18-17 deficit into a 29-20 and then took control of the game in the opening 10 minutes of the second half with a 21-10 run that turned a 48-34 halftime lead into 69-44 edge following a 3-pointer by senior guard Seth Evans (Marseilles, Ill.). The 25 point lead was the largest of the game for the Mocs. Â
"We played extremely well tonight. Saint Leo is a very good team," Mocs head coach Linc Darner said following his team's first regional semifinal victory since 2009 when they defeated Arkansas Tech, 95-90 in overtime in Lakeland. "It is hard to beat a team three times in one season. I thought it was one of our better games from start to finish this year."
Sunday's win was the first of the season for the Mocs against the Lions as SLU, who shared the regular season SSC title with the Mocs, won both of the regular season meetings. In fact, both of FSC's wins over SLU in the past two seasons have come in the postseason as FSC defeated SLU, 61-58 in the championship game of the 2012 SSC Tournament in Lakeland and then earned the win tonight in the NCAA Tournament. The Mocs, who hold an 85-16 edge all-time in the series, were just 1-4 against SLU the past two seasons before tonight's win.
"We've been a big game team most of the season, but tonight we made some uncharacteristic mistakes," Saint Leo head coach Lance Randall said in the postgame press conference. "But a lot of credit goes to Florida Southern. It was the best I've seen them play this season."
Four Mocs finished the game in double figures as Evans, who was named a First-Team Daktronics All-Region selection this past Thursday, led the way with 19 points to extend his double figure scoring streak to 15 straight games. In addition to Evans, sophomore guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) and Cameron Vines (Columbus, Ohio) combined for 33 points and 10 rebounds as Capers had 17 and five boards, while Vines tallied 16 points, including nine in the second half and also added five rebounds.
"I thought Cameron (Vines) hit some big shots in the second half for them as we were trying to make some runs," said Randall, who is in his second season with the Lions.
The fourth Moc in double figures was junior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.), who finished with 12 points in the win. He scored nine of his 12 points in the first half.
SLU senior guard Marcus Ruh did all he could do to keep his team in the game as he scored a game-high 27 points, including scoring 19 of SLU's 34 first half points.
"Ruh is a great player. He is going to get his points, but our goal was to limit the production of their other two scorers and we were able to do that for the most part," the Mocs coach added. "He (Ruh) kept them in the game, especially in the first half."
The Mocs limited Trent Thomas, the team's top offensive threat off the bench to eight points, while Jerrel Harris finshed with 21 points, but most of those after the Mocs had pushed it lead up to near 20 points in the second half. Harris scored 10 of his 16 second half points in the final eight minutes of the game.
During the regular season, Thomas averaged 21.5 points per game against the Mocs.
In the first half, the Mocs trailed 18-17 before its 12-0 run gave them a 29-20 lead following two free throws by Capers with 9:53 left in the opening half. The run was aided by five points from sophomore guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio).
Following FSC's run, the Lions moved within 31-25 following a trey by Marcus Ruh, before Lane drilled a trey from about 24 feet to push the Mocs lead to 34-25 with 6:11 left in the opening half. After SLU pulled witin 38-31 following a four-point play by Trent Thomas, who was fouled as he connected on a 3-point shot with 3:30 left in the game, the Mocs closed the half on a 10-3 run to go into the locker room with a 48-34 lead at the half. It was the Mocs first lead at the half since the Barry game in the first round of the SSC Tournament on March 8.
Ruh, who was named the SSC Player of the Year and was also named a First-Team Daktronics All-South Region honoree, scored 19 of SLU's 34 first half points. In fact, Ruh was one of only four Lions to score in the first half, while seven of the eight Mocs that played scored at least five points.
For the game, only six Lions scored on the night, while seven Mocs scored at least five points and five tallied eight or more points in the victory.
The Mocs finished the game shooting 45 percent from the field and 45 percent from the 3-point line and forced SLU into 20 turnovers that led to 29 points. In the first half, FSC scored 17 points off of 12 Lion turnovers. FSC committed just 10 turnovers on the night.
"I thought we did a nice job focusing on defense tonight. SLU has a great offense and they it execute well, but I thought we played well defensively and forced them into turnovers that led to easy baskets," Lane said. Lane had three of the Mocs 10 steals in the game.
SLU shot just 38 percent from the floor and 30 percent from long distance and was outrebounded, 39-33. In the second half, the Lions shot just 32 percent from the floor and 14 percent from the 3-point line.
