Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern showed little rust following a nine-day layoff between games here Tuesday evening as the sixth-ranked Moccasins cruised to a 99-65 victory over Puerto Rico-Bayamon in non-conference action at Jenkins Field House.
The Mocs, who improved to 3-0 on the season with the win, used a 21-2 run over a span a three-plus minutes in the first half to turn a 32-20 lead into a 53-22 advantage with a little under five minutes left in the opening half. The run was aided by three consecutive three-pointers and capped by a trey from sophomore guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.). During the run, Volovic and junior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) each scored six points.
In the opening 20 minutes of the game, the Mocs shot 49 percent from the field and connected on eight of its 16 three-point shot attempts and held a 22-13 edge on the glass, and forced the Vaqueros into 17 turnovers that led to 25 points.
"I thought we played really well in the first half," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said following his team's 16th straight regular season non-conference home victory. "We had some really good runs tonight, I thought we guarded them pretty good, we got them to turn it over and we got them to shoot it quicker than I think they wanted to."
The Mocs haven't lost a regular season non-conference game on its home court since falling 91-89 to St. Cloud State on a half-court buzzer beating shot in the opening game of the 2012 Terrace Hotel/Ledger Media Group Classic on Nov. 23. In fact, since that loss to St. Cloud State, the Mocs have lost just a total of five home games overall during that same period.
Following FSC's run, Bayamon, who opened the season with victories in Puerto Rico over then No. 5 ranked Montevallo (67-66) and then No. 11 ranked Western Washington (84-78), would score four straight points to cut FSC's lead to 53-26, but the Mocs closed the half on 6-5 run to go into halftime holding a 59-31 lead. The 59 first half points were the most scored by the Mocs in the opening half of a game since scoring 56 in a 98-62 win over Palm Beach Atlantic on Jan. 19, 2013.
FSC's 3-0 start is its 27th in school history and its fourth 3-0 start in the last seven seasons. Last season, the Mocs opened the season winning its first 18 games en route to finishing the year with a 26-5 overall record.
Senior All-American guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) and Volovic combined to score 29 of the Mocs 59 first half points and were two of the five Moccasins to finish the night in double figures. Capers scored 20 of his game-high 22 points in the opening stanza, while Volovic had nine of his career-high 21 points in the first half.
Capers has now scored 20 or more points in all three games this season and in six straight games overall dating to last season. With his 22 points, he went over the 1,600 career point mark as he has now scored 1,609 career points, which is second among currently active Division II players.
The other Mocs who finished in double figures on the night were freshman guard/forward Tyler Ross (St. John, Ind.) as he tallied a career-high 11 points, of which nine came after halftime, along with senior forward Bubby Johnson (Waldorf, Md.) and Williams, who each had 10 points in the win. Johnson also pulled down a career-high 11 boards for his first-ever career double-double.
"Bubby did an outstanding job on the boards tonight. He was really aggressive and got his hands on a lot of balls, especially on the offensive glass," said Darner, who is now 185-71 in ninth season at the helm of the Mocs. Seven of Johnson's 11 boards came on the offensive end as the Mocs held a 21-6 edge on the offensive glass for the game.
Bayamon, who played its second consecutive game in the Sunshine State as they opened its five-game trip to Florida with an 83-57 loss on Monday night at Rollins, began the second half on a 9-4 run to pull within 63-40 following a three-pointer by Nathanel Martinez with 17:16 left in the game that forced Darner to call a timeout.
Following the timeout, the Mocs responded with an 18-7 run over the next five-plus minutes to push its lead to 81-47 following two free throws by Volovic with 11:17 left in the game. The run was aided by a combined 16 points from Volovic and Johnson as Volovic scored nine points and Johnson added seven.
"End of the day, it is who have the bigger runs in the game? Can we have more of them than the other team? Because the way we play, it's a game based on runs," Darner said when asked about scoring runs for his team. "That's one thing we tell our guys, when a team goes on a 5, 6, 7-0 run on us, we've got to take it to the basket - we can't just shoot jumpers. I looked at the score and I think were up two and then the next thing you know we're up 24."
After Alexis Parrilla stopped the Mocs run with a lay-up 35 seconds later to drop FSC's lead to 81-49, the Mocs would use a 12-0 run in a little less than five minutes to extend its lead to as much as 44 points following two free throws by Volovic. Volovic's two free throws made the score 93-49 with 5:41 left in the game.
At that point of the game, the only question remaining would be is if the Mocs would be able to top the century mark for the first time this season. The Mocs, though, would fall one point short of the 100 point plateau as they would only score six points over the game's closing five minutes, including junior guard Melique Hill (Tampa, Fla.) misfiring on two free throws with seven seconds left in game, to remain stuck on 99.
Jesus Marquez led the way for Bayamon with 16 points, including scoring 12 of them in the first half. In addition to Marquez, Martinez added 12 points off the bench and Victor Caratini chipped in with 11 points in the loss. Coming into the game, Caratini and Marquez were averaging 26.2 points per game between them on the season.
The Mocs finished the game shooting 42 percent from the field and 36 percent (9-for-25) from the 3-point line and connected on 81 percent (34-of-42) of its free throws, while Bayamon shot 43 percent from the field, but were just 4-for-20 (20 percent) from long distance and shot 17-for-26 (65 percent) at the foul line. On the night, the team's were whistled for a combined 58 fouls as Bayamon had 35 and the Mocs committed 23.
FSC also finished the game with a 47-28 edge on the glass and forced the Vaqueros into 29 turnovers that led to 41 points. The Mocs committed a season-high 18 turnovers on the night.
The Mocs will return to action this weekend as they host its annual FSC/Terrace Hotel Classic at Jenkins Field House. The Mocs will begin play in the two-day event on Friday, Nov. 28 against Stillman (2-2) at 7:30 p.m. and conclude the tournament on Saturday, Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m. against No. 3 ranked Metro State (4-0). The other team in the tournament is Armstrong State (2-2) as the Pirates will face Metro State on Friday and Stillman on Saturday at 5:15 p.m. respectively.
"It should a great weekend for basketball. We have three very good teams coming in, so the fans will see a lot of good high-quality basketball," Darner said about this weekend's Terrace Hotel Classic.
