Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern closed the pre-Christmas portion of its schedule here Sunday evening by posting a 93-57 victory over Miles College in a non-conference South Region contest at Jenkins Field House.
The victory improved the second-ranked Moccasins to 11-0 on the season and extended its regular season non-conference win streak to 30 straight games and upped its home court non-conference win streak to 22 consecutive games dating to the 2012-13 season. The 11-0 start to the season is its second straight and 10th in school history.
Sunday's game was the third in four days for the Moccasins as they opened the stretch with a 98-82 win on Thursday against Limestone, before collecting a 107-65 win on Friday over Tuskegee and concluding the stretch with its 36 point victory over Miles, who is coached by former Tuskegee coach Leon Douglas.
"Tonight wasn't one of our better performances of the year. We had an off shooting night and I guess it was a good time to have that in a game we won by over 30 points," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said. "I thought our pressure and defense was tremendous and really bothered them tonight."
In Sunday's victory, the Mocs forced the Golden Bears into 25 turnovers and scored 36 points off those turnovers, including forcing 15 turnovers and scoring 27 of its 55 first half points off those turnovers. Along with creating turnovers, the Mocs were also strong at the free throw line as they finished shooting 83 percent (24-for-29) at the line, including going 18-for-23 at the line in the first half. FSC finished the game with 12 turnovers, including committing just four turnovers in the first half.
"We didn't score much in the half court today, it was all by turnovers and at the free throw line," said Darner, who improved to 193-71 in his ninth season as the Mocs coach. "We didn't do much better in the second half, but it was one of those nights when we didn't shoot the ball well."
For the game, the Mocs, who led 55-25 at the half, shot 37 percent (29-for-78) from the field and connected on just 34 percent (11-for-32) of its 3-point shots in the win. Miles didn't shoot much better from the field on the night as they hit just 32 percent (23-for-71) of its field goals and shot 35 percent (6-for-17) from the 3-point line. In the second half, the Mocs shot 35 percent from the field and 24 percent (4-for-17) from the 3-point line.
"I thought we went through the motions tonight shooting the ball and when you go half-speed, you never shoot the ball well," the Mocs coach added. "Had we shot the ball the way we're capable of, we would've scored 120 points."
The Mocs offense was paced by a season high 20 points off the bench from junior guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.), while senior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) added 15 points and six boards, including scoring 11 of those points in the second half. Senior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) and junior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) each had 13 points and senior forward Daniel Turner (McCordsville, Ind.) chipped with 12 points as the Mocs finished with a 53-12 edge in points off the bench in the victory.
"Our bench has played well all year and those guys are a big part of how we play," Darner said. "Tonight, they came in made some shots and scored off the bench and also rebounded the ball and got some steals. We expect that out of those guys off the bench every time we play."
In the first half, Miles scored the first basket of the game on a three-pointer by Maiscei Grier, before the Mocs answered with an 18-4 run capped by a free throw by Williams with 13:55 left in the opening half to push FSC out to an 18-7 lead.
After Patrick Jackson brought the Golden Bears within nine points at 18-9, the Mocs used a 28-6 run keyed by a combined 21 points from Travis, Turner and Kelly to push out to a 46-15 advantage with 4:55 remaining in the half. During the run, Travis scored eight points, while Kelly had seven points and Turner had six points.
Miles would score eight of the next 12 points to drop the Mocs lead to 50-23, before FSC outscored Miles, 5-2 over the final two minutes of the first half to go into halftime with its 30-point lead.
Grier led the way for Miles with 23 points, including scoring 14 of his team's 25 first half points, while Jackson added 13 points and Brandon Jack tallied nine points in the loss.
The Mocs opened the second half by scoring nine straight points, all of which came from Battle, to push its lead to 64-25 with 17:48 left in the game. Miles, though, would score 15 of the next 21 points to drop FSC's lead to 70-40 with 12:21 remaining.
FSC would use a 20-11 run over the next eight-plus minutes to push out to a 90-51 lead. The run was capped by a Turner lay-up.The Golden Bears would score six of the game's final eight points to set the final margin.
Both teams finished with 53 rebounds apiece, as the teams combined for a total of 35 offensive boards as the teams missed a combined 97 field goals on the night.
Senior All-American guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) led the Mocs with 10 boards, while senior forward Bubby Johnson (Waldorf, Md.) and Travis each had eight boards in the win. Miles was paced by eight boards from Jack, while Grier and Powel Jasnos each had seven boards in the loss.
Along with his 10 boards, Capers also dished out five assists and scored a season-low six points to snap his double-digit scoring streak at 13 games. With the six points, he increased his career scoring total to 1,781 points, which is fourth on the school's all-time list.
FSC also collected 13 steals for game, including a career-high seven steals from sophomore guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.).
FSC will now take now take 12 days off, including seven days off (Dec. 22-28) mandated by the NCAA as part of its "Life in Balance" initiative that was established a few years ago, before returning to the court on Saturday, Jan. 3 as they host eighth-ranked Barry (8-1, 1-0 SSC) in a 7:30 p.m. Sunshine State Conference contest. It will mark the first SSC game of the season for the Mocs.
"Barry is really good. They are a Top 10 team and have just about everyone back from last season's NCAA Tournament team and has added two 6-foot-8 Division II transfers," Darner said. "It will be a huge game for us to open league play. They are very good, one of the better teams in the league."
