Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern opened its 88th season of intercollegiate men's basketball here Saturday by rallying from a one-point halftime deficit to post an impressive 93-76 victory over West Alabama at the season opening SSC/GSC Challenge at Jenkins Field House.
The ninth-ranked Moccasins, who have now won three consecutive season openers, opened the second half on an 11-0 run to turn a 40-39 halftime deficit into a 50-40 lead in a little less than four minutes out of the locker room and would eventually lead by as much as 19 points in the final 40 seconds of the contest. The run was jump started by two consecutive treys from senior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) and capped by a lay-up from senior forward Bubby Johnson(Waldorf, Md.).
"We went in at the half and we said this is what we want to do in the second half defensively and we went out and executed it, got turnovers and some easy buckets," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said following the game. "And that helped us get on a run and got up 10 or 12 points right away to start the second half.
"I think that was a good sign that we able to make an adjustment at halftime and our players came out and executed in the second half."
With the victory, the Mocs open the season 1-0 and is now 7-2 in season openers under ninth year head coach Linc Darner, while UWA fell to 0-1 on the season.
Following that run to open the second half, the Tigers, who qualified for the NCAA Tournament a year ago for the first time since 1982, scored seven of the next nine points to pull within 52-47. The Mocs, though, would answer with 20-10 run over the next five-plus minutes to push out to a 72-57 edge with 9:39 left in the game following two free throws by senior All-America guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.).
Capers led the way offensively for the Mocs in the season opener as he tallied 24 points, including scoring 19 of FSC's 39 first half points. In addition to Capers, who was one five Mocs to score in double figures, senior forwardStephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) added 14 points and seven rebounds, while Kelly and junior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) and Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.) all had 10 points in the game.
"I thought Stephen came out and was very aggressive, which is good, because we want him to be aggressive. He can score the basketball and needs to be aggressive for us to be good," the Moccasin coach added. "Dominique is a tough match-up as he is 6-3 and we're playing him at forward because we're thin inside and teams have to guard him with a big guy and he is shooting the ball extremely well right now."
UWA would mount one more push to get back in the game as they used a 14-5 run over the next three minutes to pull within 78-71 following two free throws by Aaron Cobb. That would be as close as UWA would get as the Mocs would score 15 of the game's final 20 points, including pushing its lead to 19 points at 93-74 following a free throw by Johnson with 42 seconds left. Johnson would finish the game just one point shy of double digits as he had nine points and pulled down seven rebounds.
"Bubby really rebounded the ball extremely well and played good on the defensive end and made some good moves inside and scored, which we needed," said Darner, who is now 183-71 as the Mocs coach.
The Mocs, who finished the game shooting 49 percent from the field, struggled shooting the ball in the first half as they connected on just 37 percent (13-for-35) and were just 4-for-14 (29 percent) from the 3-point line. The struggles shooting the ball helped UWA jump out to a seven point lead at 15-8 with 12:43 left in the first half.
Following that seven point lead, the Mocs would use a 13-6 run to tie the game at 21 following a lay-up by senior guard Tyler Logan (Landover, Md.) with 8:28 left. After UWA would retake the lead at 24-21, the Mocs would respond with a 9-2 run capped by five consecutive points from Capers to take a 30-26 lead with 5:27 remaining.
The Tigers would then use a 14-7 run to take a 40-37 lead with 1:24 left following two free throws by Lleon Tillman, before Kelly ended the half's scoring by hitting two free throws with 1:13 left to drop UWA's lead to 40-39 at the half.
Justin Wright led the way for the Tigers with 21 points, including scoring 13 points in the first half to help the Tigers to its halftime lead. In addition to Wright, Tillman and Deontaye Ewing each had 12 points in the loss. The Mocs held Jarell Byrd, who was the team's leading returner scorer from last season's squad, to just six points after averaging nearly 12 points per game last season.
The Mocs held a 37-33 edge on the glass as Johnson and Battle each had seven boards and forced UWA into 13 turnovers that led to 14 points. The Mocs had 11 turnovers and dished out 17 assists as Kelly had six for the game.
Both teams combined to shoot 54 free throws for the game, including 31 in the second half as FSC was 20-for-24 (83.3 percent) at the line and UWA was 20-for-30 (66.7 percent) from the line.
The Mocs will conclude play in the SSC/GSC Challenge on Sunday afternoon by facing 13th-ranked Delta State in a 4 p.m. contest at Jenkins Field House. The Statesmen opened its 2014-15 season with an 89-77 win over Eckerd. Eckerd will get things started on Sunday afternoon as they will meet West Alabama at 2 p.m.
