Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern completed the first weekend of the 2014-15 regular season here Sunday afternoon by posting an impressive 97-80 victory over 13th-ranked Delta State in the final game of the second annual SSC/GSC Challenge held at Jenkins Field House.
Sunday's win came about 24 hours after the ninth-ranked Moccasins opened the 2014-15 campaign with a 93-76 victory over West Alabama to open 2-0 for the third consecutive season. DSU fell to 1-1 on the season as they opened its season with an 89-77 win on Saturday against Eckerd in its SSC/GSC Challenge opener.
"It's huge to be able to win two games this weekend. We were able to win two South Region games against two opponents I think are going to win a lot of games this season," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said. "Delta State was picked to win their league, so that was a big win and I think West Alabama has a very good team. Every game you play is big, but when you play teams in region it becomes a bigger game and an even bigger win."
Much like last season's opener in Cleveland, Miss., against the Statesmen, the Mocs, who won last year's game 89-66, used a strong defensive effort as they held DSU's duo of Devin Schmidt and Jack Madgen to a total of 28 points, but allowing them to only shoot 7-for-15 from the field, including holding Schmidt, who is a Preseason All-America, without a field goal in the second half and an offense that scored over 90 points for the second consecutive game and placed four players in double figures led by senior All-America guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.), who had 29 points and added five assists in the win. Last season, FSC's defense held the Statesmen to 66 points and 35 percent field goal shooting and limited Madgen and Schmidt to a total of 17 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the field.
"I thought we played really well tonight. Delta State is very good and they have got two outstanding guards," the Mocs coach said. "They have a nice team and are a hard team to guard, but I thought we did a very good job with our game plan and tried to keep Madgen and Schmidt from scoring a bunch of points. We wanted their other guys to have to shoot the ball today and for the most we achieved that goal."
In the first half, the Mocs held Madgen and Schmidt to a combined eight shots from the field as they shot 4-for-8 from field, while the rest of the team shot 10-for-27 (37 percent) from the field.
While the Mocs defense played extremely well in Sunday's game, so too, did its offense as they shot 46 percent from the field, including shooting 52 percent from the field in the second half and connected on 17 of 21 (81Â percent) free throws in the win.
DSU finished the game shooting 42 percent from the field and 44 percent from the field, but shot only 40 percent from the field and 25 percent from long distance in the first half. In its season opening win over Eckerd, the Statesmen shot 64 percent from the field and 57 percent from the 3-point line as Schmidt (25 points) and Madgen (16 points) combined for 41 of DSU's 89 points.
In addition to Capers, who scored 16 of his game-high 29 points in the first half to help the Mocs take a 49-40 lead at the half, senior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) added 15 points and eight boards, while senior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) had 14 points and five boards. The other Moc to score in double figures was junior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) as he had 12 points, six rebounds and three steals off the bench as the Mocs bench outscored the Statesmen's bench, 27-23 on the day.
"I thought Dylan played well and guarded extremely well today," said Darner, who is now 184-71 as the Mocs head coach. "I also thought Steph stepped up and unlike last season when if he missed four shots, he would've never shot it again and would've disappeared, but this year, he kept shooting and found his range."
The Mocs jumped out to a 22-13 lead just nine minutes into the game following a dunk by Battle, before Madgen hit a trey with 10:24 left in the opening half to cut the Mocs lead to 22-16. From that point, the Mocs used a 16-0 run keyed by a combined 14 points from Capers and Kelly to push out to a 38-22 edge with 5:41 left. Kelly scored eight points during the run, including hitting back-to-back treys at the end of the run and Capers added six points.
DSU, who is one of four preseason nationally ranked teams the Mocs are facing this season, answered with an 8-0 run capped by a lay-up from PJ Davis to pull within 38-30 with 3:46 left. The Mocs would close the opening half by scoring 11 of the final 21 points to take a 49-40 lead at the half.
The Mocs would open the second half on a 13-10 run to push its lead to 62-50 following a lay-up by senior guard Tyler Logan (Landover, Md.) with 15:53 left in the game. DSU, though, would answer with a 6-2 run over the next two minutes to pull within 64-56 following a trey from LaQuavius Cotton.
Following Cotton's trey, the Mocs would use an 18-10 run over the next six-plus minutes to extend its lead to 84-66 following a lay-up by Battle, who scored 11 of his 15 points after halftime.
After two free throws and a lay-up by Madgen sandwiched around a free throw by Capers pushed the Statesmen within 85-70 with 5:32 left, the Mocs would respond with a 10-5 run capped by a Capers jumper with 1:31 left to give the Mocs a 95-75 advantage. DSU would score four of the game's final six points to set the final margin.
"We did things tonight defensively we've hadn't work on in practice much and I thought the guys did a good job on those things," Darner commented. "Last night we made an adjustment at halftime that led to the win and tonight we made an adjustment at our 9 a.m. shoot-around this morning and then we came out and did a great job at executing.
"It wasn't perfect, but we got done what we wanted to get done, make other guys have to shoot the basketball."
One player Darner singled out for his defensive play on the weekend was Capers.
"I think the good thing on this team is that guys are starting to get on Kevin on the defensive end and he is playing harder on defense this season and that is good for our us. When he really wants to guard, we're going to be real good and that is one of the reasons we won this weekend," said Darner. "I thought he guarded about as good as I've seen him guard for us in three years.
"He just has to keeping working on it in practice."
Alister Chisholm led the way for the Statesmen with 18 points, while Schmidt and Davis each had 15 points on the night. The final DSU player in double figures was Madgen as he finished with 13 points, but attempted only six shots. Schmidt, who took nine shots, got nine of his points at the foul line as he was 9-for-10 at the stripe.
"It was huge to hold Schmidt without a field goal in the second half. I thought Michael (Volovic) and Tyler (Logan) did a great job guarding him much of the game."
The Mocs were outrebounded, 43-42 as Davis led the Statesmen with 12 boards, while in addition to Battle's eight boards, senior forward Bubby Johnson (Waldorf, Md.) had seven boards in the win.
FSC also forced the Statesmen into 21 turnovers that led to 29 points, while the Mocs finished with just five turnovers, including just one turnover in the opening 20 minutes of the game.
The Mocs will now have to wait nine days before returning to the court as they will host Puerto Rico-Bayamon in a 7:30 p.m. game on Tuesday, Nov. 25. Last season, the Mocs collected a 94-75 win over the Vaqueros.
