Box Score
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky - Florida Southern saw its 2012-13 season come to an end here Thursday evening as the eighth-ranked Moccasins couldn't recover from allowing a season-high 59 points in the first half en route to suffering a 96-82 loss to fourth-ranked Western Washington in the 2013 NCAA Division II Elite Eight quarterfinals at historic Freedom Hall.
The Mocassins, who finished with season with a 27-6 overall record and were making its ninth Elite Eight appearance and first since 2000, was able to rally in the second half as they pulled within nine points three times in the final five minutes of the game, but couldn't get any closer as the defending D-II National Champions scored eight of the game's final 11 points to earn its 10th straight NCAA Tournament win and advance to Saturday's national semifinals against seventh-ranked Drury.
"WWU is a very good team. They have a great balance and two really, really good guards," Mocs head coach Linc Darner said in the postgame press conference. "We dug ourselves too big a hole in the first half, but I thought we played a lot better in the second half and had some chances to cut the deficit to six points, but couldn't get over the hump."
The Vikings, who improved to 31-2 on the season with the win, jumped out to a 28-16 lead with 10 minutes left in the first half. The Mocs would used a 4-2 run capped by two free throws from senior guard Seth Evans (Marseilles, Ill.) with 9:11 remaining. From that point, WWU used a 23-16 run over the next seven-plus minutes to push its lead to 53-36 with 3:13 remaining. The run began with a trey and was capped by a trey from John Allen.
Following WWU's run, the Mocs would close the first half on an 11-6 run to pull within 59-47 at the half. FSC's run was capped by back-to-back 3-pointers from junior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.) and Evans.
"We never thought we were out of the game. We've trailed a lot this season, so I knew we would make a run in the second half," said Darner, who was named the Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year for the fourth time in his seven years at the helm of the Moccasin program.
Sophomore guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) did all he could do to keep the Mocs in the game in the opening half as he scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the first half. Nearly half of Capers' points in the game came at the foul line as he was 13-for-19 at the charity stripe.
"We just couldn't stop them defensively, especially in the first half," said Capers, who averaged 21.3 points per game in four NCAA Tournament contests. "We competed and played hard, we just couldn't get over the hump."
The Mocs opened the second half on a 12-10 run to pull within 69-59 following a trey by Lane with 14:03 remaining. The Vikings, though, would push its lead back out to 14 points at 73-59 with 13:05 left, before the Mocs once again used a 10-6 run to pull within 79-69 after a free throw by junior forward Lamar McKnight (Cleveland, Ohio) with 8:47 remaining.
After Anye Turner scored on a lay-up to push WWU's lead to 81-69 with 6:54 left, the Mocs would mount another comeback as they used a 6-3 run to drop the Vikings lead to 84-75 following a lay-up by McKnight, but that would be as close as the Mocs would get the remainder of the game.
McKnight finished with 12 points and six boards, while senior forward Brett Bailey (Davie, Fla.) added 14 points and seven boards in his final game as a Moc. Lane also finished in double figures as he had 12 points on the night.
One player that was bottled up by the Vikings defense was Evans, who scored 12 points in the loss, but was held to a 2-for-12 night from the field and a 2-for-8 effort from the 3-point line.
"I thought they did an outstanding job guarding Seth tonight," the Mocs coach added. Evans entered the Elite Eight having averaged 23.7 points per game in three South Regional Tournament games.
Allen led the way for WWU as he had 22 points, but was forced into eight turnovers for the game. In addition to Allen, Austin Bragg added a double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds, while Richard Woodworth also scored 17 points and added seven boards and five assists.
"I thought Woodworth had an efficient game for them tonight," Darner added. "We thought he was the key player and if we could've forced him to have a bad game, that would be to our advantage, but he had a great game."
Cameron Severson added 14 points off the bench and Paul Jones chipped in with 10 points.
Darner said his team's has nothing to hang their heads about despite the outcome of the game.
"We played hard. We finished with a 27-6 record and we can learn something for this game," said Darner, who is 166-66 as the Mocs coach. "Only one team is going to end the season happy. I'm really excited about the group of players we have coming back and hopefully we can get back here next year."
The Mocs finished the game shooting 36 percent from the field and 28 percent from the 3-point line, while WWU shot 55 percent, including 58 percent in the first half, from the floor, but was held to just 19 percent (3-for-16) from the 3-point line.ÂÂ
FSC was outrebounded 50-36 and forced the Vikings into 21 turnovers. The Mocs committed just 15 turnovers, but WWU scored 21 points off those turnovers, including 17 points off of 12 first half Moc turnovers.
The Mocs did outshoot WWU at the free throw line as they were made 29 of its 40 attempts (73 percent), while WWU was 17-for-22 (77.3 percent) at the line.
With the loss, the game ended the Moccasin careers for FSC's five member senior class. The seniors this season were Bailey, Evans, forward Jon Gardner (Anderson, Ind.), guard Jay Hubble (Pendleton, Ind.) and forward Brant Leitnaker (Lancaster, Ohio).
