LAKELAND - Sixth-ranked Florida Southern will put its 16-game home court winning streak on the line here Saturday evening as the Moccasins play host to Lynn in a 7:30 p.m. Sunshine State Conference tilt at Jenkins Field House.
The Moccasins, who are 19-2 overall on the season, enter the game sitting atop the league standings with an 8-2 record, but they have lost two of its last three games with the only win being a 95-73 victory at home last Saturday over Nova Southeastern. FSC comes into the weekend fresh off a 94-76 loss on Wednesday at Barry. In that loss, the Mocs trailed by as much as 20 points in the first half, before rallying to pull within six with about nine minutes remaining, but the Buccaneers closed the game on a 23-11 win to seal the victory.
"We need to be ready to play on Saturday and not dwell on our loss at Barry," Mocs head coach Linc Darner said following Wednesday's game at Barry. "Our defense on the perimeter has got to better and we need to find someone to knock down some shots."
FSC enters Saturday's second match-up with Lynn having won 16 straight games on its home court, including being 12-0 at home this season. The Mocs last loss at home came in its second to last regular season game against Florida Tech as the Panthers earned an 83-78 victory. Since the beginning of the 2011-12 season, the Mocs have posted a 42-6 record at home, including going 17-4 at home in SSC play.
The Mocs are sitting two games ahead of Barry, Tampa and Nova Southeastern in the league standings with six games to go in the regular season. Barry, Tampa and NSU are also tied for second in the league with 6-4 records. Saint Leo is one game behind those three teams as they are 5-5 in the league standings. The Mocs have already swept two games from Nova Southeastern, split its season series with Barry and collected wins over both Tampa and Saint Leo in the first half of the conference slate.
"We are still in control of our own destiny, but we need to play better than we have lately going forward," said Darner, who is one win shy of recording his 250th all-time victory as a collegiate head coach. Darner is 249-111 in his 12th season as a collegiate head coach, including posting a 175-68 record in his eighth season at the helm of the Moccasin program.
While the Mocs enter Saturday's game sitting atop the SSC standings, Lynn comes into action reeling as the Fighting Knights have dropped five straight games overall and seven of its last eight since the beginning of the 2014 calendar year. Lynn's only win during this stretch came at home on Jan. 15 over Rollins as the Fighting Knights defeated the Tars, 70-67. The Rollins win came four days after Lynn suffered an 85-74 home loss to the Mocs. Lynn is sporting a 7-12 overall record and is in last place in the SSC standings with a 1-9 league mark.
Saturday's game will mark the 41st meeting all-time between the two teams, including the second meeting this season, as FSC holds a commanding 31-9 edge in the series. FSC earned an 85-74 win over Lynn on Jan. 11 in Boca Raton. The Mocs have won nine straight games in the series, including sweeping the season series in each of the past four seasons. The Fighting Knights haven't beaten the Mocs since posting a 70-69 win in Lakeland on Feb. 21, 2009. Mocs coach Linc Darner is 13-3 against Lynn, including going 5-2 at home.
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Lynn, who was picked to finish sixth in the Preseason SSC poll, comes into Saturday's game as one of the top defensive teams in the league as the Fighting Knights are fourth in the league in 3-point field goal defense (32.8 percent) and leads the league, is 12th nationally in blocked shots (5.3 blocks per game) and is fifth in the SSC in scoring defense as they are allowing 72.3 points per game. On offense, Lynn is averaging 69.4 points per game and is shooting 40 percent from the field, 28 percent from the 3-point line and is third in the SSC in free throw shooting at 73.4 percent.
The Fighting Knights have two players averaging in double figures as junior guard Aaron Harrison is fifth in the league in scoring and second in rebounding as he averages 17.5 points and 9.1 rebounds per game and is tied for second in the league in double-doubles with eight. On the season, the State College of Florida at Jacksonville transfer is shooting 46 percent from the field and 79 percent at the free throw line and has scored in double figures in 19 games and has had seven games of 20 or more points and has reached double figures in 10 consecutive games. The other double-digit scorer for Lynn this season is sophomore forward Fred Landers, who is averaging 12.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game and is shooting 42 percent from the field and 76 percent at the foul line. In the earlier meeting this season with the Mocs, Harrison and Landers combined to 50 of LU's 74 points as Landers tallied 28 points and Harrison added 22 points.
Lynn is under the direction of Jeff Price, who has returned to the Fighting Knights for the second time in his career as he has compiled a 141-56 record in six season at Lynn and is 310-208 in his 19th season as a collegiate coach. In his first go-around at Lynn from 1993-99, Price averaged 23 wins per season, including posting 20 or more wins in five of those seasons, including leading the 1996-97 squad to a school record 28 wins and a berth in the NCAA Division II National Semifinals.
While Lynn enters the game with one of the top defenses in the league, the Mocs will test that defense as they enter the weekend as the top-ranked offensive unit in the league as they averaging 89 points per game and have scored 80 or more points in 17 of 21 games. Additionally, the Mocs are also outscoring its foes by a league-best 11.9 points per game and are second in the league in field goal shooting at 47.1 percent and is second in the league in free throw shooting at 73.9 percent. The Mocs also lead the SSC in steals (8.6) and is tied for first in assist/turnover ratio (1.2). On defense, FSC is allowing 77.2 points per game and is foes are shooting 44 percent from the field and 33 percent from the 3-point line.
The Mocs offense is led by junior guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) as he is second in the league in scoring at 19.7 points per game and is also averaging 2.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game and is shooting 51 percent from the field and 78 percent at the line. He has scored in double figures in 18 games and enters the weekend having scored 20 or more points in seven straight games and a team-best 13 times this season. Since senior guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.), who was averaging 14.1 points per game, was lost for the season in the first half against Florida Tech on Jan. 18, Capers has significantly raised his offensive production as he is averaging 26.6 points per game over the last five games. He enters Saturday's game sitting 14th on the school's career scoring chart with 1,281 points and is 19 points shy of becoming just the 13th Moccasin to ever score 1,300 points in his career.
In addition to Capers, junior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) is also averaging in double figures at 10.0 points per game and is pulling down 4.2 boards per game and shooting 54 percent from the field, while senior guard Frank Adams (Stone Mountain, Ga.) is averaging just a shade under 10 points per game at 9.9 points and is shooting 53 percent from the field and has reached double figures in two straight games and six times in his last seven outings.
Following Saturday's game, the Mocs will hit the road for two games next week as they begin the road swing on Wednesday, Feb. 11 with a 7:30 p.m. game at Eckerd, before concluding the two-game road swing next Saturday, Feb. 15 with a 4 p.m. game at Florida Tech.
Live stats will be available here: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=30019.
Live webcast and audio broadcast of the game will be available here: http://fscmocs.nmtvsports.com.
Complete Lynn Game Notes
