Mocs Wrap Up Regular Season With Dramatic Win Over Rollins

LAKELAND - Florida Southern rallied from a 15-point second half deficit here Saturday evening to close the 2013-14 regular season with a dramatic 72-68 victory over Rollins in Sunshine State Conference play on Senior Night at Jenkins Field House.

Prior to Saturday's game, the 12th-ranked Moccasins honored its four senior players, plus its senior manager and senior student athletic trainer in a pregame ceremony. This year's Moccasin seniors are guard Frank Adams (Stone Mountain, Ga.), guard Dominic Lane (St. Petersburg, Fla.), forward Lamar McKnight (Cleveland, Ohio) and forward Garrett Putman (Washington, D.C.), along with student manager Mike Dubuque and student athletic trainer Emily Terry.

With the victory, the Mocs close the regular season with a 24-4 overall record and finish with a 12-4 mark in the SSC, while Rollins saw its four-game win streak snapped as they fell to 14-12 overall and 8-8 in the SSC. The Mocs, who claimed its 21st regular season SSC title last Saturday after Saint Leo lost at home to Lynn, will be the No. 1 seed in next week's SSC Tournament and they will not play until Saturday, March 8 in the semifinal round against one of four teams, No. 4 seeded Barry, No. 5 seeded Rollins, No. 6 seeded Nova Southeastern or No. 7 seeded Eckerd. Those four teams will play in the first round of the tournament on Wednesday, March 5 and the two winners will face each other on Friday, March 7 at 5 p.m.

Complete 2014 SSC Basketball Tournament Bracket

In Saturday's game, the Mocs closed out the game by outscoring the Tars 8-2 over the final 90 seconds of the game after Rollins' Mitch Woods hit a jumper with 1:45 left to give the Tars a 66-64 lead. The Mocs would tie the game 21 seconds later on a bucket by junior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) and 46 seconds would take a 68-66 lead following a bucket from Adams.

Alex Blessig retied the game on two free throws with 18 seconds left, before Adams drove to the basket and scored on a lay-up with seven seconds left to give the Mocs a 70-68 lead. On the ensuing inbounds play, Adams stole the ball away at half court from Woods and would cap the game's scoring by hitting two free throws with two seconds remaining.

"We wanted to get as close to having the last shot as possible and Frank made the play on lay-up and then made another big play on the other end of the floor by collecting a steal on the inbounds pass," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said following his 180th win as FSC's coach. "Frank stepped up and made some big plays down the stretch, but I also thought Stephen (Battle) and Tyler Logan gave some good minutes and played well in the second half."

Darner thought that his team got off to a slow start, but he thought his team played better after halftime.

"I thought we were a lot better as a basketball team in the second half and I hope that helps give us confidence as we move into the postseason," the Mocs coach added.

The Mocs dug themselves a hole in Saturday's game thanks to hot shooting by the Tars as they connected 64 percent of his shots and 63 percent of its three-pointers to take a 38-27 lead at the half. On the night, Rollins finished shooting 58 percent (22-for-38) from the field and 50 percent (9-for-18) from the 3-point line.

While Rollins was shooting lights out, the Mocs offense struggled at times shooting the ball as they shot 31 percent (11-for-36) from the field in the first half and made only three of its 11 (27.3 percent) 3-point shot attempts. Going into the under eight media timeout in the second half, the Mocs were shooting just 33 percent from the field, but finished the game hitting 7 of its last 15 shots (46.7 percent) to help aid in its come-from-behind victory.

For the game, FSC shot 36 percent from the field and 43 percent (9-for-21) from the 3-point line.

"Rollins did a nice job guarding us tonight and made us take some tough shots, but I thought down the stretch of the game, we got more confident and starting hitting some of those shots we missed earlier in the game," Darner said.

It appeared early in the second half that Rollins was going to send the Mocs to its fifth loss in its last 10 games as the Tars opened the second half on an 8-4 run to push its 11-point halftime lead to 46-31 following a trey from Chris Uhle with 16:34 left in the game.

The Mocs, though, responded with a 21-6 run capped by two free throws from junior guard Tyler Logan (Marlboro, Md.) to tie the game at 52 with 7:36 remaining. The run was aided by nine points from McKnight, who led the Mocs in scoring on the night with 16 points.

Rollins, though, would retake the lead after Woods hit 1-of-2 free throws, before Battle hit a trey to jump start a 12-9 run to push the Mocs out in front 64-59 with 3:31 left. The run was capped by a dunk from Battle, who finished the night with 15 points, all of which came in the second half.

Woods, who finished the game with a career-high 35 points, scored five straight points to tie the game at 64 with 2:08 remaining.

In addition to Woods, Uhle tallied 16 points and had 11 rebounds for the Tars, while Scott Schuette added nine points and seven boards off the bench.

Adams was the third Moccasin to score in double figures as he finished with 12 points, while Capers tallied nine points and had five assists in 15 minutes and junior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) had seven points, three rebounds and six assists while battling foul trouble. 

The Mocs forced Rollins into 23 turnovers that led to 25 points, including scoring 18 points on 16 second half turnovers by the Tars. FSC finished the game with seven.

FSC also held a 37-33 edge on the glass, including collecting 20 offensive boards that led to a 18-4 edge in second chance points.

The Mocs will now get a week off before returning to action next Saturday, March 8 as they open play in the semifinals of the SSC Tournament, which is being held at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee.