KISSIMMEE - 10th-ranked Florida Southern will look to advance to its second straight championship game here Saturday night as the No. 2 seeded Moccasins face 25th-ranked and No. 3 seeded Eckerd in the second semifinal of the 2013 Sunshine State Conference Championship Tournament at the Silver Spurs Arena.
The Mocs, who shared the SSC regular season title with Saint Leo and is seeking its 21st all-time tournament title, earned its sixth consecutive and 29th overall appearance  in the SSC Tournament semifinals with its 75-57 win over No. 7 seeded Barry in Friday's quarterfinal round, while Eckerd earned its 21th SSC Tournament semifinal berth with its 62-48 quarterfinal win over No. 6 seeded Nova Southeastern.
FSC's win over Barry was keyed by a 23-10 run over seven-plus minutes in the second half to turn what was a seven-point lead into a 20 point edge. Sophomores Cameron Vines (Columbus, Ohio) and Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) combined for 33 points as Vines finished with 17 points, while Capers tallied 16 points, eight rebounds and four steals to help the Mocs improve to 22-5 overall and win its third consecutive game. Two other Mocs reached double figures in the win over the Buccaneers as junior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.) had 16 points and seven boards and senior guard Seth Evans (Marseilles, Ill.) recorded 10 points to run his streak of consecutive double figures games to 11 straight.
Meanwhile, Eckerd rode a career-high of 24 points from Walade Wade in its win over the Sharks. Against NSU, Eckerd trailed 27-21 at the half, but shot 55 percent from the field and 56 percent from the 3-point line in the second hald and outscored the Sharks, 41-21 to earn its seventh straight win to improve to 20-6 on the season. The only other Triton in double figures was Darrien Mack, who finished with 10 points and seven boards in the win.
Saturday's game will mark the third meeting this season between the two teams as they split their two regular season meetings. The Mocs picked up a 93-82 win in Lakeland on Jan. 16 and the Tritons earned an 85-75 win in St. Petersburg on Feb. 20. The Mocs hold a 62-32 edge in the all-time series, but Eckerd has won two of the last three meetings in the series. In addition, the two teams will be meeting in the SSC Tournament for the 11th time as FSC has won seven of those previous 10 meetings.
Both the Mocs and Tritons are almost assured of continuing their season past this weekend as FSC is ranked No. 1 in this last week's latest NCAA Division II South Regional rankings, while Eckerd is ranked No. 3. The NCAA will announce the 64-team field for the 2013 NCAA D-II Basketball Tournament online at www.ncaa,com on Sunday, March 10 at 10:30 p.m. EST. ÂÂ
The winner of the FSC-Eckerd semifinal game will meet the winner of Saturday's other semifinal match-up between No. 5 seeded Rollins and No. 1 seeded and 16th-ranked Saint Leo in Sunday's 3:30 p.m. SSC Tournament Championship game.
Live stats for all game of the SSC Tournament will be available here: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/scoreboard/live.html?tid=100&to=all&theme=ssc
Live video broadcast of the SSC Tournament will be available here: http://www.sunshinestateconference.com/page.asp?articleID=1898
Live audio broadcast of the Eckerd game will be available here: http://fscmocs.nmtvsports.com
