Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern began a stretch of playing three games in four days here Thursday to close out the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule by posting a 98-82 victory over Limestone at Jenkins Field House.
Thursday's victory improved the No. 2 ranked Moccasins to 9-0 overall on the season and extended its non-conference regular season win streak to 28 games. Limestone fell to 2-7 with the loss.
"After the weekend we just had on the road and not practicing much this week after our 14 hour trip home and to get ready to play three games in four days, I thought our guys played well tonight in getting the job done," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said following his team's 20th consecutive regular season non-conference home win. The Mocs haven't lost a regular season non-conference home game since falling to St. Cloud State, 91-89, on Nov. 23, 2012 in its first game of the Terrace Hotel/Ledger Media Group Classic in Lakeland.
Thursday's win was keyed by the Mocs ability to force turnovers as Limestone committed 28 for the game and the Mocs scored 34 points off those turnovers, including scoring 18 points off of 14 turnovers in the first half. FSC came into the game third in Division II in turnover margin at +8.9 as they finished the night with just seven turnovers for a +21 margin, including committing just one turnover in the second half.
"Our guys did a nice job of forcing turnovers and creating scoring opportunities on the other end of the floor," the Mocs coach added. "Plus, I also thought we did an outstanding job of taking care of the ball."
While its defense created turnovers and allowed the Mocs 16 more field goal attempts than the Saints as the Mocs took 75 shots for the game and held Limestone to just 59 field goal attempts. For the game, the Mocs shot 47 percent from the field, but just 25 percent (6-for-20) from the 3-point line, while Limestone shot 46 percent from the field and 48 percent (10-for-21) from downtown in the loss.
Senior All-American guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) led the way offensively for the Mocs as he finished with 32 points, including scoring 25 of those points in the first half to help the Mocs take a 47-35 lead at the half. With his 32 points, Capers moves within 10 points of Donolly Tyrell for fifth place on the school's career scoring chart. Tyrell scored 1,768 for the Mocs from 1987-90, while Capers has now scored 1,758 points in a 103 career games.
In addition to Capers, who extended his double-digit scoring streak to 12 consecutive games dating to last season, senior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) added 18 points and seven rebounds, while junior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) had 12 points off the bench in the win.
Two other Mocs just finished short of double figures as sophomore guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.) had nine points and senior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio), who was named this week's Sunshine State Conference and USBWA Division II National Player of the Week, added eight points and nine assists.
FSC jumped out to a 4-0 lead and led 9-4 when Limestone used a 5-0 run to tie the game at 9. That would be the only tie of the game as the Mocs answered with a 14-6 run capped by a Capers lay-up to push out to a 23-15 lead with 12:09 left in the opening half.
The Mocs would eventually would push its lead out 11 points at 34-23 following a lay-up from junior guardDominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) with 7:27 remaining in the half. Back-to-back baskets from Shaq Dance and a trey from Brolin Floyd brought the Saints within four points at 34-30, before Capers scored six straight points to push the Mocs lead to 40-30 with 3:09 left.
Floyd would answer back for the Saints by scoring five consecutive points to draw Limestone within five points a 40-35. The Mocs, though, would score five of the half's final seven points to take a 45-37 halftime lead.
Dance, who finished the night with a team-high 21 points for the Saints, would score the first four points of the second half to pull Limestone within 45-41 just 46 seconds out of the locker room. That would be as close as the Saints would get though as the Mocs used a 15-5 run keyed by seven points by Battle to the Mocs out to a 60-46 lead with 15:22 left in the game.
Limestone would score 10 of the next 15 points to drop FSC's lead to 65-56, before the Mocs responded with a 10-1 run capped by a three-pointer from Kelly to push FSC's lead to 75-57 with 10:57 remaining. The Mocs lead would eventually grow to as much as 22 points following a lay-up from freshman guard/forward Tyler Ross (St. John, Ind.) with 4:48 remaining. Ross' lay-up made the score 95-73. A free throw from senior forward Daniel Turner(McCordsville, Ind.) and a jumper from senior guard Tyler Logan (Landover, Md.) gave the Mocs a 98-79 lead with 3:34 remaining.
FSC, though, would fall short of the century mark as Volovic missed two free throws with 3:06 left and the Mocs would misfire on its final eight shots as the Saints would score the game's final three points on free throws to set the final margin.
Despite missing its final eight shots of the second half, the Mocs did manage to shoot 50 percent from the field after halftime.
Along with Dance's 21 points, Assad Woods finished with 12 points and nine boards, while Floyd added 11 points off the bench and Justin Crowder tallied 10 points and six assists in the loss.
Limestone finished the game with a 44-33 edge on the glass and held a 31-30 edge in bench points.
The Mocs shot 73 percent (22-for-30) at the free throw line, including Capers going 6-for-6 from the charity stripe to extend his consecutive made free throw streak to 19 straight makes. Limestone shot 82 percent (18-for-22) at the line for the game.
FSC will continue its three game stretch to conclude the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule with a 6 p.m. game on Friday, Dec. 19 against Tuskegee (3-3), who ended the Mocs 2013-14 season with a 98-95 win in the first round of the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament in Lakeland.
"It will be another big test for our team tomorrow night, so we'll need to be ready to go," said Darner, who is now 191-71 in his ninth season as the Mocs head coach.
