Moccasins Season Ends With Setback to Tuskegee in South Regional Tournament

LAKELAND - Florida Southern saw its 2013-14 season come to a close here Saturday evening as eighth-seeded Tuskegee shot 56 percent from the field and 81 percent from the free throw line to withstand a 46 point performance from junior Kevin Capers en route to earning a 98-95 win the first round of the NCAA Division II South Regional Tournament at Jenkins Field House.

The 46 point effort by Capers, who is a Winter Haven, native, was the second-most points scored by the Moccasin in a game in school history and the first 40 point scoring game by a Moc player since Tim Gatz scored 41 points at North Florida on Jan. 14, 1994. The 46 point effort also established a new record for the Mocs in an NCAA Tournament game as the old record in points in an NCAA Tournament game was 40, which was set by John Ebeling against Central Florida on March 7, 1981. The single-game school record for points is 50, which was also set by John Ebeling against Otterbein on Dec. 8, 1981.

Capers, who was named the Daktronics South Region Player of the Year on Thursday and was also named both the SSC Player of the Year and SSC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, scored 31 of his 46 points after halftime as both teams combined to score 60 second half points.

"I give Tuskegee a lot of credit. They came in a played an unbelievable game tonight," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said in the postgame press conference following just his team's second home loss of the season. "To win in the NCAA Tournament you have got to step up and make plays and tonight they stepped up and made plays."

One of the biggest differences in the game as Tuskegee's ability to shoot free throws as they connected on 26 of its 32 free throw attempts (81.3 percent), while the Mocs hit only 59 percent (20-for-34) at the line.

"They shoot 64 on the year from the free throw line and tonight they shot 81 percent and we lead the league in free throw shooting as we shot 75 percent on the year, but we shot 59 percent from the line in the game," the Mocs coach added. "Tuskegee was better than us tonight, plain and simple, they made the plays they needed to make and we didn't."

The Mocs, who trailed by as much as 12 points in the first half, didn't take its first lead of the game until a 3-pointer from Capers with 18:19 left in the game. Capers' trey gave the Mocs a 42-41 lead.

The Golden Tigers, though, would come right back and retake the lead following a trey from Kevin May. May's trey jump started a 15-7 run by Tuskegee that pushed its lead out to 55-49 following two free throws from Richard Dixon. After Capers scored on a lay-up to move the Mocs within four points at 55-51, Kendall Coleman hit another three-pointer with 11:15 left in the game to push Tuskegee's lead to 58-51.

FSC, who closed the season with a 26-5 record, would use a 14-6 run to take a 65-64 lead with 7:33 left in the game. The run was aided by a combined nine points from Capers and senior forward Garrett Putman (Washington, D.C.). Putman was one of four Moc seniors who played their final games of their collegiate careers tonight.

Neither would gain much control of the game over the next four-plus minutes until the Golden Tigers used a 7-0 run to turn a 77-76 deficit into an 83-77 lead with 2:17 left in the game. The run was capped by a trey from Dixon, who finished the game with 23 points off the bench.

After Dixon hit two free throws to give TU an 85-77 lead, the Mocs would come stroming back as they answered with a 13-6 run capped by a three-point play from sophomore guard Dominique Williams (Haines City, Fla.). Williams' lay-up and free throw pushed the Mocs within 91-90 with 24 seconds left.

Tuskegee would seal its win by hitting 7-of-8 free throws in the final 22 seconds of the game to post its second victory over the Mocs all-time and the first since earning a 107-102 win over FSC in the third place game of the 1979 South Regional Tournament held in Lakeland.  

"I thought Tuskegee played well. They made some changes from when we played them earlier in the season and those changes helped them tonight," said Darner, who earned his fifth Sunshine State Conference Coach of the Year accolade last week.

In the first half, Tuskegee started the game making nine of its first 10 shots and shot 57 percent from the field in the first half to sprint out to a 38-35 lead at the half. While Tuskegee hit seven of its first eight shots, the Mocs connected only three of its first 15 shots. The Mocs shot 33 percent from the field in the opening half.

The Golden Tigers used that early shooting success to jump out to a 20-11 lead just eight minutes into the game. The Mocs, though, responded with 15-4 run that was capped by a 3-pointer from Capers to move FSC within a point at 29-28 with 4:55 left. After Elliot Dean hit a trey 23 seconds later to give TU a 32-28 lead, the Mocs would five of the next seven points to pull within 34-33. A trey by Camden Foster and two free throws from Dean pushed TU's lead back out to five at 38-33, before Capers capped the first half scoring with a basket right before the buzzer.

Darner said that despite his team's loss on Saturday, the season was very successful, despite falling short of its goal of repeating as regional champion.

"As a whole, we had a really good season. We went 26-5, made back to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh consecutive season and also won both the regular season and postseason league titles," said Darner. "We played 7 of the 8 teams in this year's South Regional and had another great season. We have nothing to feel sorry for, we just got beat tonight."

No other Moccasin finished in double figures besides Capers as the junior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) had nine points and eight rebounds, while senior guard Frank Adams (Stone Mountain, Ga.) and junior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) each had eight points in the loss.

Dean led the way for Tuskegee with 31 points, while Dixon added in 23 points and Foster chipped in with 18 points and nine rebounds in the victory that moves Tuskegee into a regional semifinal match-up Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. against No. 4 seed North Alabama, who concluded Saturday's quarterfinal action with a 72-68 win over fifth-seeded Tampa.

"I am really proud of my guys tonight. We were able to accomplish one of our goals, which was to win a game in the NCAA Tournament," Tuskegee head coach Leon Douglas said following the game. "FSC has one hell of a player in #0 (Kevin Capers), that young man came to play and we were fortunate to win the game."

Saturday's game was the second meeting this season between the two teams as the Golden Tigers traveled to Lakeland for a game on Dec. 22. In that game, the Mocs defeated Tuskegee, 106-90.

"I thought playing them here in December helped us tremendously tonight," said Douglas, who improved to 117-112 in his eighth season with the Golden Tigers.

On the night, Tuskegee finished the game shooting 56 percent from the field and 50 percent from long distance, while the Mocs shot 42 percent from the field and 29 percent from the 3-point line.

The Mocs outrebounded Tuskegee, 46-38 and committed just nine turnovers, while they forced Tuskegee into 16 turnovers that led to 21 Moccasin points, including scoring 18 of those points in the second half.