Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern brought out its high octane offensive attack here Saturday evening as the sixth-ranked Moccasins scored a season high 109 points in its 109-96 Sunshine State Conference victory at Jenkins Field House over Florida Tech.
The 109 points bettered the previous season high of 107 points which came in a 107-65 win over Tuskegee on Dec. 19. In addition, it was the fifth time this season for the Mocs to eclipse the century mark and the first time since scoring 102 points in its 107-102 loss in its SSC opener on Jan. 3 to then 11th-ranked Barry. FSC has now scored 93 or more points in 10 of its 16 games this season.
"They (Florida Tech) are a good team to play as both teams play up-and-down and both teams score a lot," Moccasin head coach Linc Darner said following his team's fourth straight victory. "I thought we did a good job tonight of moving the ball up-and-down the floor and once we got going moving the ball, we were able to take and make some good shots."
Saturday's victory, which was its third straight over the Panthers, extended the Mocs win streak to four straight games and improved their record to 15-1 overall and 4-1 in the SSC. Tech fell to 10-6 overall and 0-5 in the SSC.
"We've had some guys struggling shooting the ball lately, but tonight those guys had good nights," the Mocs coach added. "We've got to get everyone having good nights as we're about to go on the road for four of our next five games."
One of those players that had a good night shooting the ball was senior guard Tyler Logan (Landover, Md.) as he scored a season high 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. The 14 points was two shy of Logan's career high of 16 points set last season against Lynn.
"Tyler really shot it well tonight," said Darner, who improved to 197-72 as the Mocs coach. "He's been coming in lately working on his shooting and when guys come in and get extra work, it usually pays off."
Logan was one of six Mocs to score in double figures in the game as senior All-American guard Kevin Capers (Winter Haven, Fla.) led with way with a game-high 19 points, including scoring 14 of them in the first half to help stake the Mocs to a 52-44 halftime lead.
With his 19 points, Capers became the No. 2 scorer in Florida Southern history as he jumped both Kris Kearney and Rion Rayfield on the school's all-time scoring chart. Capers entered the game needing seven points to jump both Kearney (1,868 points) and Rayfield (1,869 points) and he scored that seventh point on a free throw with 12:36 left in the opening half. He has now scored 1,883 points in 110 career games as a Moccasin and is just 117 points shy of becoming just the second-ever Moc to score 2,000 career points. John Ebeling is the school's career scoring leader as he tallied 2,514 points from 1979-82.
"It's a great honor for him to be the No. 2 scorer in school history. I never thought anyone would catch (Rion) Rayfield and now I don't know if anyone will ever catch Kevin," Darner said when asked about Capers' accomplishment. "It's a great thing for him. It is something he'll look back on someday and brag to his kids about."
In addition to Capers and Logan, senior forward Stephen Battle (Waldorf, Md.) had 18 points and six boards, while junior guard Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) had 15 points and five boards off the bench and senior guard Tyler Kelly (Pickerington, Ohio) added 13 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in the win. The sixth Moc in double figures was sophomore guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.) as he tallied 11 points and added four assists as the Mocs dished out 20 assists on its 31 made baskets.
"We have a lot of guys that can score on this team," Darner added. "That's good balance. That's what we need all the time. For us to be good and hard to guard, we have to have guys score like that all the time."
In the first half, Tech jumped out to a 4-0 lead and led 10-5 when the Mocs used 14-5 run capped by a Travis trey to push out to a 19-15 lead with 13:58 left in opening stanza. Five quick points from the Panthers gave them a 20-19 lead, but the Mocs would answer with a 10-4 flurry of their own capped by a Capers lay-up to push out to 29-24 lead.
The Mocs lead would grow to as much as nine points following a dunk by Capers with 2:38 left in the half to make the score, 49-40. After a lay-up by Tech's Corbin Jackson dropped the Mocs lead to 49-42, FSC would score three of the half's final five points to go into halftime holding an eight point lead.
Tech was able to stay in the game in the first half thanks to fouls by the Mocs as FSC committed 16 fouls and Tech shot 26 free throws and made 14 of them in the half. For the game, the teams were whistled for 28 fouls each and a combined 89 free throws were shot as FSC was 35-for-44 (79.5 percent) at the line and Tech was 28-for-45 (62.2 percent) at the charity stripe.
FSC opened the second half on a 15-6 run to push its lead to 67-50 following a trey by Kelly with 16:35 left in the game. The Panthers, who have dropped three straight and five of its last six games overall after opening the season by winning nine of its first 10, would respond with an 11-2 run capped by Chris Carter lay-up to push within 69-61 with 14:03 remaining.
The Mocs would once again answer as they used an 11-3 run to push its lead to 80-64 following a triple from Logan with 11:28 left in the contest. Logan scored eight of his 14 points in the second half.
Tech would chip away at the lead as they pulled within 82-70 following two Carter free throws with 8:20 left, but could get no closer as the Mocs used a 20-11 run to push out to a 102-81 lead, inclduding topping the century mark on a lay-up by senior forward Daniel Turner (McCordsville, Ind.) with 3:21 remaining in the game.
The Panthers would score 15 of the game's final 22 points to set the final margin at 13.
While the Mocs had six players score in double figures, Tech had five players score 10 or more points on the night as Jordan Majors led the way with 18 points and added eight boards. Carter tallied 17 points, while Jackson had 15 points and 10 rebounds in the loss. Akeem Johnson had 11 points and Caleb Wigginton scored 10 points and seven rebounds, all of which came in 11 second half minutes of action.
For the game, the Mocs shot 40 percent from the field and 33 percent from the 3-point line and have now shot under 50 percent from the field in 11 consecutive games. Tech finished the night shooting 45 percent from the field and 33 percent from long distance.
The Mocs won the rebounding battle, 53-45, including collecting a season-high 25 offensive boards that led to a 24-21 edge in second chance points.
Both teams also did a good job at taking care of the ball as they combined for a total of 22 turnovers for the game as Tech had 12 turnovers and the Mocs committed just 10, including six in the second half.
FSC will now begin a stretch of playing three of its next four games on the road beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 21 as they travel to Tampa for a 7:30 p.m. game against the University of Tampa. The Spartans improved to 10-5 on the season with its 63-55 home non-conference win on Saturday over Palm Beach Atlantic.
